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District Multi-Stakeholders Forum

Policy Recommendations on the Right toEfficient, Effective, Responsive and Accountable Governance

Recommendation 1: Independence of the Public Service:

1.1. Independent, impartial and de-politicized public service should be ensuredthrough laws and management procedures. Following are recommended forfuture reforms:

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

and financial autonomy and adequate human resource capacity to manage andmonitor the public service. Policies on recruitment of public servants, transfers,

promotions and disciplinary actions should be decided by this independentCommission. 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 genderdiversity 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 tomaintain 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 PublicService 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 andother 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 futurerecruitment of public servants of all levels.

2.5. Politically motivated appointments of public servants should be prevented in thefuture. If any political appointments are to be made to the public service, personswith 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 andretirement benefits should be ensured for all public servants.

3.2 Information on services and procedures of all public institutions should bedisplayed visibly for public to create awareness on the functioning of all publicinstitutions.

3.3 Non-discriminatory delivery of services of all public institutions based onethnicity, 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 publicinstitutions throughout the country in-line with the Official Languages Policy.

3.5 All public institutions should prepare their institutional charters spelling out theservice 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 beestablished 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 producegraduates in Public Administration

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

3.9 A system of performance monitoring should be introduced to all public serviceand efficient and effective performances should be recognized and rewardedannually.

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