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Civil Servants in Mass Exodus

Mallika Wanigasundara writes from Colombo
*** The aim of the retirement scheme is to lure public servants to leave in the shortest possible time in the largest possible numbers ***
THEY are leaving in droves. There is a massive exodus from Sri Lanka's public and administrative serv ices under an exceptionally concessionary retirement sch eme. More than 30,800 public servants have opted to retire, under the concessions which were operative till December 31, 1990.
This number comprises officials and workers from all levels and grades — from minor employees to Secretaries of Ministries. Among the retirees are 11.798 schoolteachers. 83 doctors. 226 nurses, more than 12,000 mid-level public servants, and 1,500 clerical servants of all grades.
The hospitals are bound to feel the pinch with the additional departure of a considerable number of hospital attendants. ward clerks, lab assistants and other technical men.
The departing schoolteachers include, 1,394 school principals, 8,182 trained teachers, 1.358 graduates and 54 diploma holders.
Besides there are engineers. accountants, educational and agricultural services officers, tax officers, planning and scientific services person nei, bookkeepers, storekeepers, shroffs, typists, stenographers and so on.
It is the most golden of handshakes and no wonder many are taking advantage of it. Public servants who have served 10. 20 and 30 years were able to retire before Dec 31, 1990 and draw 90 per cent of their salaries on the date of retirement, as pen slons, In addition to commuted pensions and bonuses
There are variations In the scheme of benefits for those who have served less than 20 years.
Those who have served for 30 years and have not reached 59 years by the deadline are the biggest beneficiaries. Take Mahinda Jayatunga who served in the Inland Revenue Department for 34 years, starting as a clerk. At the time of retirement he had been pro moted as an Assessor.
"I found it was most lucra tive to retire at this point of time," said Mr. Jayatunga. who almost the day after, walked into another job In a tax consultancy firm. He explained the arithmetic.
His salary was 4,500 rupees (USS 112). After deductions he got around 4.000 rupees, or 96 per cent of his salary Into his hands. When he retired he got 90 per cent of his salary at time of retirement, which meant that he was losing only 4 per cent, a matter of 161 rupees (US$4)
But then look at the other concessions : he got two years salary as commuted pension, not deductible from the amount of his pension (which under normal circumstances would have been deducted). In addition he got six months bonus tn salary. This meant that he got 30 months salary as bonus amounting to 135,000 rupees (US93.375)
He could invest this money In the state-owned National Savings Bank whose current rate of Interest Is 18.5 per cent. This Is of course the safest bank. Finance companies pay higher interest rales, but many of them have turned out to be a wobbly lot.
There are several reasons for this drastic bloodletting In the public services, even though many departments, schools and hospitals could be adversely affected to begin with. The need for a sharp thinning of the flabby public services has been in the air for some time. There is an equal imperative for restructuring ft.
An Administrative Reforms Committee headed by a senior administrative officer which Investigated the public ser vices found that it was over loaded in some areas by 20 per cent. This meant 20 per cent of about 500,500 public ser vants. Thus, around 80,000 90,000 jobs were redundant.
According to this report,
there was a freakish distortion of salary scales The most professionally qualified officers at the top were underpaid, while non-professional grades which formed more than 90 per cent of the service were overpaid
The rationale behind the restructuring of the service was to reduce the strength of the cadre and use the savings to pay higher salaries to the professionally qualified persons at the top. Because of poor remuneration many quail fled officers, trained and highly experienced In top jobs, have been pulling out of the service to take up jobs abroad or tn the private sector
Departments and agencies set up to handle specific as slgnments during special requirements tended to go on even after the job was done. Five of these departments have been shut down completely.
The government has also been pressured by the World Bank to prune Its public ser vices. This became a condition for the release of the second trance of a World Bank loan by January 1991. The alm of the retirement scheme Is to lure public ser vants to leave in the shortest possible time In the largest possible numbers. But schools and hospitals and some departments are bound to suffer The Administrative Reforms Committee did not reeom mend an across the board re tirement scheme
The General Hospital. Colombo — a massive hospital with 2.400 beds — Is fortunately not affected by the de parture of only four doctors and a few nurses. Where It is facing problems Is with hospl tai attendants (70 have left), and mid level and minor Staff.
The attendants are trained and have long experience, the hospital has to be cleaned by the minor staff. They push trolleys, accompany patients, take specimens for testing, etc. These chores will have to be met with a thinned out staff.
The country Is short of doc tors and nurses, but this is being met by the training now under way. Due to the civic unrest of the last few years several batches of medical students could not enter the universities or complete their courses if they were already in.
Now the universities have been reopened About 5.000 nurses are being trained in addition. The country has 499 state hospitals and 3.200-odd doctors.
Schools, have been short of
English and Science teachers and the provincial schools are bound to be most affected by this exodus.
In Colombo the problem is not too acute due to the fact that teachers are always willing to serve In Colombo schools Btg schools like the Royal College. Ananda College and Vtsakha Vlddyalaya were able to find replacements-quickly But school principals mourn the departure of experienced, trained teachers and most of them had over 20 years expe rience. they said
The exodus will be felt In some departments because as one official put it. "the most experienced, the best trained and the most mellowed per sons have gone ' Some deplore the fact that the flab should have been taken out. where It was overweight. Instead of across- the- board.
But there is also the view that work seems to expand with both time and cadre strength. Administrators, focal government officials and Mln isters of Provincial Councils have told the Minister of Public Administration. Mr. Festus Perera that many problems have been created by the exodus.
As a result, a team has been set up to examine the need for fresh recruitments in Instances where vacancies can not be otherwise filled with existing personnel.
— Depthncms Asia.