Addressing the Cabinet media briefing held at the Government Information Department, Sep; (03), he said as per the government’s policy statement, a chosen group of graduates representing the employment of 50,000 graduates, were handed over their appointment letters at the Presidential Secretariat last afternoon (02). The minister noted that the government had also decided to increase the already decided recruitment numbers by another 12,000.
Responding to a question raised by a journalist regarding the high number of recruitments to the government sector, the minister said that the previous government’s policy was to weaken the government sector and strengthen the private sector. He referred to the previous government’s decision to restructure the SLTB and laying off staff in 2002, stating that it only resulted in the downfall of the country’s transport sector until today.
However, the minister said that the current government’s goal is to strengthen the state sector by recruiting graduates, intellectuals and efficient people and enabling the state sector to be on par with the private sector on a competitive level. He said this would be beneficial to the country and its people.
When questioned regarding the non-recruitment of graduates who were employed in the private sector in possession of an EPF number, the minister responded that the government is in the process of resolving this issue.
He said that the chosen graduates would be directed to training workshops until the 07th, adding that although the government had decided to recruit 50,000 graduates initially, based on the directives of the President, a decision had been taken to increase this number to 60,000.
Accordingly, yesterday 50,177 graduates joined the government service yesterday and of them 38,760 are females. Among those recruited were 31,172 Arts Graduates, with 29,156 of them being internal graduates and 20,322 external graduates. Among those recruited were 1000 monks as well.
The other graduates were 1,839 from the Commerce stream, 7,278 from the management stream, 4,494 from the science stream, 143 from the indigenous medicine stream, 161 health, 989 IT and 233 engineering and law streams. Another 1,906 were accountancy diploma holders.
