(UTV|COLOMBO) – President Maithripala Sirisena issuing a Gazette Notification has ordered that Ministry Secretaries who are prematurely removed from their post due to ‘reasons beyond his/her control’ would still qualify for a government pension and other remunerations which come with the office.
The Extraordinary Gazette issued on December 27, 2018, states that the President ordered the “Minute on Secretaries published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 48/2 dated 06.08.1979 and amended from time to time as ordered by the President be further amended in the manner set out in the following schedule with effect from 26.10.2018”.
The amendment thus is: “The following sub paragraph is hereby inserted immediately after paragraph (4) of the Minute on Secretaries.
4(a) Where a Secretary who is deprived of the post due to reasons beyond his/her control, namely “a reason that is not a disciplinary factor reshuffle of the Cabinet of Ministers or a dissolution of Parliament or the Cabinet of Ministers” and has completed a minimum of one year in the post of Ministry Secretary as at the date on which he/she is deprived of the such post. (i) if the balance period of service up to the date of mandatory retirement is one year or less, such an officer is made entitled to the pension and all other allowances and privileges assuming that he/she has served up to the age of 60 years at the time of retirement in terms of the provisions of paragraph (4) of the Minute on Secretaries”.
Further, “If he/she is re-appointed to his/her previous service or post in terms of paragraph (5) of the Minutes on Secretaries he/she is made entitled to the seniority salary scale in terms of paragraph 5 (a) of the Minute on Secretaries and in addition, to the special pensionable allowance granted to Secretaries to Ministries by the Presidential Secretariat Circular No. PS/CSA/00/1/9/11 dated 23.05.2018”.
Since October, Ministry Secretaries have been changed twice with many simply reshuffled among the pool or reappointed to the same posts. During the Constitutional crisis however politicians were recorded to have issued statements against Ministry Secretaries who continued to work in their departments with many promising disciplinary action against them.
Courtesy : dailynews.lk