CP urges govt not to downsize public sector

The Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) has urged the government not to downsize the public sector.

The CP statement said: “Senior Presidential Economics Advisor Duminda Hulangamuwa has warned that the Treasury is unlikely to maintain current expenditure levels in the coming years. He suggests that the government will do this by a drastic reduction of the public sector workforce, slashing the current 1.3 million employees to just 750,000. He suggests substituting “digitalisation” for a trained workforce.

“However, this goes against the stated policy of the National People’s Power (NPP) on which both President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka and the current government was elected. The NPP Manifesto published in August states on page 111 that it would be:

“Conducting an immediate census to identify information such as the skills and qualifications of workers to re-position them to achieve new socio-economic goals to increase the efficiency of the government service instead of the popular option of laying workers off.”

“Past attempts at cost-reduction through laying off employees has only resulted in a reduction in the delivery of services to the public, increases in waste and expenditure and sometimes in work coming to a standstill. Reducing the cadre, without reference to the work carried out by the staff, only reduces efficiency. Improving the efficiency of the state sector requires a thoroughgoing, holistic analysis of the workings of each department and institution. Often the staff need to be trained for their existing jobs, or retrained for different work.

“It is obvious from the words of Senior Presidential Economics Advisor that the NPP regime has no intention of honouring its commitment to the people to find alternatives to sacking lakhs of workers. By assuring the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it would carry through the programme agreed with former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the NPP has signed a “pact with the devil” from which it cannot escape.

The Communist Party of Sri Lanka roundly condemns this attempt by the NPP Regime to break its promise to the people by putting lakhs of government workers onto the road. We call upon the people, the trade unions and other progressive forces to act together to force the NPP regime to carry out its promise to the people to increase the efficiency of the state sector without laying off employees.”