News
COPA reveals 272 vacancies in Dept. of Immigration and Emigration
The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) says there are 272 vacancies in the Department of Immigration and Emigration.
This was disclosed at the Committee on Public Accounts held in Parliament last Tuesday (16) under the chairmanship of Prof. Tissa Vitarana, Member of Parliament.
It was revealed that there were 18 senior level posts, 113 tertiary level posts, 121 secondary level posts, 19 primary level posts and one vacancy under the ‘other ‘category. The officials of the Immigration and Emigration Department were also of the view that such vacancies would hinder the performance of the department. The officials further stated that requests have already been made to fill these vacancies.
According to the Parliament Communication Department, it was also discussed that the “Electronic Travel Approval” system, which has been activated in collaboration with Mobitel since 2012, has not been updated with the aim of providing a more comprehensive and attractive tourist service. Therefore, the committee questioned the modernisation of the system and the need to update it to suit the modern world. Accordingly, the system is already under consideration to be updated and will be done in the future, officials said. The Chairman of the COPA Tissa Vitarana recommended that a report be submitted within two months.
It was also revealed that two vehicles owned by the department in 2012 and 2015 had been involved in an accident a few years ago and are yet to be repaired and used. The officials said that this situation has arisen due to a problem with the insurance company and that an agreement has been reached with the insurance company regarding the repairs.
Discussions also focused on the display of the official logo of a private telephone company on a web page owned by the department, the registration of persons with dual citizenship, and foreigners residing in Sri Lanka illegally.
State Ministers Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Dayasiri Jayasekara, Prasanna Ranaweera and Members of Parliament B.Y.G Ratnasekera, Weerasumana Weerasinghe, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Dr. Upul Galappaththi, Mohamed Muzammil and Prof. Ranjith Bandara were present at this committee meeting.
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal presented by the Minister of Transport, Highways, and Urban Development to award the contract for printing and supplying vehicle number plates for the Department of Motor Traffic for a period of five (5) years to M/s South Asian Technologies based on the recommendations of the High-Level Standing Procurement Committee and the Procurement Appeal Board.
The National Lotteries board has been established subject to the Finance Act No. 11 of 1963. Having identified the requirement of amending that act which was imposed around 62 years to cater the current requirements of the lottery market, the Cabinet of Mnisters at their meeting held on 14.02.2017 granted approval to draft a new bill for the purpose.
Accordingly, the National Lotteries Board has recognized further amendments to be performed to the fundamental draft bill prepared by the Legal Draftsmen.
Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval for the
resolution furnished by the President in his office as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to direct the Legal Draftsmen to finalize the formulation of the draft bill for the National Lotteries Board as soon as possible including the proposed new amendments as well.
The Werahara office of the Department of Motor Traffic performs issuance of temporary driving licenses in this country based on the driving licenses issued overseas, and measures have been initiated to render the service from a service window of the Department of Motor Traffic established at the Bandaranayake International Airport from 03.08.2025.
The fees charged for issuing temporary driving licenses have been published in Motor Vehicles (Driving License Levy) Regulations No. 3 of 2022 prepared under the provisions of the Motor Traffic (Authority 203) Act.
But, as the fee of Rupees 2,000/- charged for the service is not sufficient, the requirement of amending the regulations has been recognized.
The regulations for introducing the revised fees have been published in the government extraordinary gazette
notification No. 2463/04 dated 17.11.2025. Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution furnished by the Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development to
submit the regulations to the Parliament for its concurrence.
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M/s South Asian Technologies awarded contract to supply vehicle number plates
A new act for National Lotteries Board to be introduced
Motor Vehicles (Driving License Levy) Regulations No. 3 of 2022 to be amended
Mrs. P. K. L. S. Panduwawala appointed to the post of Surveyor General
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