Administrative officers are demanding the payment of a special allowance
Basil plans to get administrative officers to strike Featured
SLPP's de facto leader Basil Rajapaksa is coordinating a plan to get all administrative officers in the country to stage a strike, state intelligence services have warned the government hierarchy.
According to intelligence reports, Basil is politically making use of the discontent among these officials with regard to their salaries and allowances.
Just yesterday (14), they reported sick and staged a three-hour protest in front of the Public Administration Ministry demanding the payment of their special allowance.
Subject minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara promised them that he would summon the related cabinet subcommittee and attend to their matter.
Suspicion over cabinet paper delay
Meanwhile, secretary of their association Rohana Silva told the media that they had suspicions about the delay in granting their allowance after a cabinet paper was submitted three days ago on a recommendation by all parties concerned.
The cabinet paper proposes granting an allowance that ranges between Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 50,000 to administrative officers in the public service.
Before approving it, the cabinet has decided to seek recommendations from a ministerial committee headed by the finance minister.
The administrative officers are demanding this allowance after a government decision to raise salaries and allowances of officials in the attorney general's department.
Another reason is the reduction of the more than 150 salary cadres to 37 through administrative circular 6/2006.
The cabinet is of the view that granting such an allowance to administrative officers only will be unfair by the other 16 executive level services.
It is estimated that with such an increase, the payment of salaries in the state sector will require more than Rs. 1,000 billion a year.
Presently, it stands at Rs. 705 billion.
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