District Multi-Stakeholders Forum

Policy Recommendations on the Right to

Efficient, Effective, Responsive and Accountable Governance

Recommendation – 1: Independence of the Public Service:

1.1. Independent, impartial and de-politicized public service should be ensured

through laws and management procedures. Following are recommended for
future reforms:

1.1.a An independent Public Service Commission should be created with institutional

and financial autonomy and adequate human resource capacity to manage and
monitor the public service. Policies on recruitment of public servants, transfers,
promotions and disciplinary actions should be decided by this independent
Commission. The Commission should be created through a Constitutional
provision and should be accountable to the parliament.

Members of the Public Service Commission should reflect the ethnic and gender
diversity of the country and should be appointed through a multi-party mechanism
consisting of members of Parliament.

The public should have the ability utilize this Commission to redress their issues
and grievances regarding the public service.

1.1.b Un-ethnical interference of governing or opposition political parties in the affairs

of public service for their party advantages should not be allowed.

1.1.c. A strict code of conduct should be introduced to all public officials in order to
maintain efficiency, effectiveness, impartiality and discipline in the public
service.

Policy Recommendation – 2: Human Resource and Recruitment Policy:

2.1. Proper human resource policies should be created for all levels of public service.

2.2. Proper job descriptions and recruitment criteria should be drafted by the Public
Service Commission to all levels of public servants and monitored the
implementation of these policies.

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2.3. Recruitment of public servants should be done free of party political influence and
other corrupt practices. Recruitment of public servants should reflect ethnic,
gender and regional diversity.

2.4. Fluency in Sinhala and Tamil languages should be made compulsory for future
recruitment of public servants of all levels.

2.5. Politically motivated appointments of public servants should be prevented in the

future. If any political appointments are to be made to the public service, persons
with suitable qualification and experience relevant to the posts should be ensured.
Very strict criteria should be prepared and observed for all political appointments.

Policy Recommendation – 3: Efficiency, Effectiveness and non-discriminatory Public

Service

3.1 Enhanced salary, housing or housing loans, cost of living allowances and
retirement benefits should be ensured for all public servants.

3.2 Information on services and procedures of all public institutions should be

displayed visibly for public to create awareness on the functioning of all public
institutions.

3.3 Non-discriminatory delivery of services of all public institutions based on

ethnicity, language, gender, social status, political affiliation or disability should
be enforced through laws and empowering public.

3.4 Dual language capacity (Sinhala and Tamil) should be ensured in all public
institutions throughout the country in-line with the Official Languages Policy.

3.5 All public institutions should prepare their institutional charters spelling out the
service provided and the time frame to complete various requests from the public
and the redress mechanism to address the grievances of the public.

3.6 Professional Training Institutes to train public official of all levels should be
established and it should be made mandatory to be trained from these institutes
before being appointed to state offices.

3.7 Expanded opportunities should be made available through universities to produce

graduates in Public Administration

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3.8 The use of information and communication technology should be increased; at
least where appropriate and where there are high demands.

3.9 A system of performance monitoring should be introduced to all public service

and efficient and effective performances should be recognized and rewarded
annually.

3.10 A system to recall the errant public officials should be introduced.