Cabinet Spokesman Minister Nalinda Jayatissa says approval has been granted to recruit 72,000 new personnel into the public service, with individual departments currently carrying out the recruitment process.
Addressing the post-Cabinet media briefing held yesterday, the minister said of this total, 9,000 appointments have been allocated to the health sector, with 7,200 already completed and the remaining 1,800 scheduled to be recruited by the end of December.
He further noted that previous governments had made mass appointments to the public service without considering actual needs or vacancies, often driven by political motives.
“In some public institutions, you can trace when someone was appointed based on which minister was in office. We do not follow such practices. We do not make politically motivated appointments. Recruitment is based on existing vacancies and the country’s economic conditions,” he said.
Minister Jayatissa added that digitalization efforts are also being considered in the recruitment process, with appointments made to essential services accordingly. “Recruitment is being carried out in a regulated manner aligned with retirement rates, which will gradually reduce the overall size of the public service,” he said. (Newswire)