Sri Lanka bloated public sector needs HR reforms to create national prosperity: HR expert

June 17, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s laid back public sector needs human resource reforms to help the country move forward and create national prosperity, a human resource expert said.



“Unfortunately it reminds me the value of human resource development is yet to develop in the public service who is expected to make a crucial contribution towards the prosperity of this nation,” Rohantha Amarapala, President of IPM Sri Lanka said.

“As a result the nation has not been able to achieve the full potential of our people,” “This is why we believe national prosperity and public service are two important facts that need discussions.” National prosperity encompasses a variety of aspects, including economic development, social wellbeing, environmental protection and peaceful co-existence. Amarapala was speaking at the National HR conference 2015 organized by Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka, Tuesday (16) at Colombo.

Human resources is one of the most important fact which drives the economy of a country and make the it competitive in the global market.

HR practitioners say, continued training of skills and knowledge will help produce an effect human resource. “For many governments in this part of the world, HR is not a topic even,” Musharrof Hossain, President of Asia Pacific Federation of Human Resource Management said.



“In Bangladesh we do not have a HR ministry, we do not have a HR act but we are trying very hard to convince the government, although they employ only 5 percent of people in Bangladesh , their leadership and power will make a huge deferance,” “If government takes a very proactive and supportive role and work very closely with the private sector then we can definitely make changes.” About 1.5 million of the Sri Lanka’s workforce is engaged in the public sector.

Critics say Sri Lanka has a bloated public sector, which takes up about half the Island’s tax revenue to maintain. Statistics show that the number of employed persons increased marginally by 0.1 per cent to 8.424 million in 2014 compared with 8.

418 million during the previous year. As per the Public Sector Employment Survey (PSES) conducted by the CBSL, public sector employment grew by 3.



2 per cent to 1,330,456 in 2014 from 1,289,151 in 2013.



Sri Lanka’s Public sector services more often are blamed by citizens for its confused procedures and time duration. “Ironically we have an over emphasis on private sector HR with less focus on the public sector,” Ajantha Dharmasiri , Chairman of the conference said.



“This should be rectified through a sensible dialog on best HR practices and their applicability to both private and public sectors alike.”