Dispute over appointments and transfers:

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) has requested President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s intervention to prevent L.A. Kalukapuarachchi, Secretary, Health Sub Committee of Public Service Commission, from interfering in the appointments and transfers of medical officers.

GMOA President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya has urged the President to ensure that appointment and transfer process proceeds smoothly.

The following is the text of the letter, dated Nov 23: “Deployment of Medical Officers throughout the length and breadth of the country, in an equitable manner, is achieved by scientifically formulated appointment and transfer policy and process which has been proceeding smoothly.

This has resulted in Medical Services of Sri Lanka being repeatedly commended at international level.

As Your Excellency is well aware, the medical services were provided uninterrupted during periods of state emergencies such as the Civil War and tsunami, as well as the current global pandemic of COVID-19 as the aforementioned deployment process was smoothly proceeding without any interruption with the cooperation of the Public Service Commission.

The duty of the Public Service Commission is to ensure that Transfer Procedures adhere with the Government policies, rules and regulations.

However, with the recent establishment of the Health Committee of the Public Service Commission, the Secretary of which Mr. L. A. Kalukapuarachchi has been giving contradictory definitions for the circulars challenging the decisions of Transfer Boards.

Such conflicts have created a hindrance in appointments and transfers of Government Medical Officers

Most recent disagreement occurred when the PSC defined the “Effective Date of Grade Medical Officers Annual Transfer List” as the date of reporting to the relevant station, while the respective Circulars and Gazette Notifications declare otherwise.

We have been informed that the Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena has convinced the Health Committee of PSC regarding the “Effective Date” in a meeting on 10.11.2021. Despite that, Mr. Kalukapuarachchi issued a letter dated on 15.11.2021 giving a de novo definition for the “Effective Date of Grade Medical Officers Annual Transfers”

The above matter has affected the Medical Officers’ Transfers delaying allocations including rural stations.

As the Government Medical Officers Association, we have repeatedly requested to rectify the above matter by writing to the Minister of Health and Secretary to the Ministry of Health. We are making representations to Your Excellency as all our efforts have failed to rectify the situation.

Hence, we earnestly request Your Excellency to intervene in this issue in order to ensure appointment and transfer process proceed smoothly in adherence to policy, rules and regulations.

This will ensure smooth functioning of our health care services with special emphasis on equitable distribution of human resources.”