President to visit ministries to assess progress

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will visit ministries starting Monday (18) to review work in progress. This will include an evaluation of Key Performance Indicators against agreed targets. He will also look into the needs of ministries and discuss challenges obstructing further development. The review will be used to formulate strategies for the government’s 2013-2015 medium term investment programme on development.  The first such visit by the President will be to the Education Ministry, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunge said.

The Secretary recalled that the President had engaged in similar endeavors at provincial and district level and these were continuing. Addressing the media at Temple Trees yesterday, he noted that one of the key aims of these endeavors is to ensure that service to the public is delivered at optimal levels at all times: “The Ministries will be divided into nine clusters depending on the subjects to make observations faster and easier,” the Secretary added.

He said the President constantly seeks information from the public and other sources about various issues including development and these are used during progress reviews at provincial and district levels. In addition special teams too are deployed for the purpose 2-3 weeks prior to the President’s visit to an area. A similar mechanism is to be used prior to evaluation of performance at ministries too. He said President declared in the budget speech that 2013 will be the year of excellence in the public services. Therefore, the government expects public servants to deliver an efficient and courteous service to the public at central, regional and grass roots levels, he added. He said to realize this goal, the state sector has been advised to strengthen mechanisms to address public grievances, efficiently deploy human resources and make maximum use of ICT.

Commenting further on the President’s extensive visits to ministries to review progress, he said this was one of first such endeavours by the head of the state.