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Pre-election bonanza for top public servants
In a pre-election bonanza, the Ministry of Finance has sought cabinet approval to expand the duty free concessionary vehicles for senior public officials by including more categories entitled to the facility and offering them a duty free vehicle permit equivalent to Rs 22 million.
The move will enable officials not holding posts of Cabinet Ministry secretaries — like senior Treasury officials, State Ministry Secretaries and selected Heads of Departments — to also apply for the vehicle import permits under concessionary terms on retirement.
The Cabinet paper initially was submitted in March, but was held back considering the observations presented by the Minister of Public Administration. The paper was re-submitted on August 8 with amendments suggested by the Ministry of Public Administration.
One such amendment is that an officer who has served a continuous or intermittent period of three years in the post as a Secretary of a Ministry, or as a Head of a Department, outside the Public Service would be eligible for a retirement permit to import a vehicle at a concessionary term.
The concession is also to be given to the post of Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, a facility not enjoyed hitherto.
Cabinet approval is also being sought to implement the amendments with effect from November 21, 2015, the date of re-implementation of the current schemes of importing motor vehicles under concessionary terms.
According to the original Cabinet paper, the proposal had been justified on the grounds that due to policy decisions of the government, some secretaries of various Cabinet Ministries had been later appointed to lower level posts prior to completion of three years of service in the post of a secretary of a cabinet Ministry as required by the Public Administration regulations.
The paper also pointed out that some senior executive officers are not entitled to obtain a vehicle import permit at the time of retirement due to non-completion of disciplinary actions against them owing to administrative failures and delays, non-completion of five years at the date of retirement from the date of opening of Letters of Credits caused by administrative delays in issuing permits and non-completion of the required service period of three years in a permanent post as the officer was deployed in special circumstances based on government requirements.
The moves come despite the Treasury issuing strict directives to all state institutions to cut down expenses, in the wake of the cash-strapped government struggling to revive the economy in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks.
Last month, state institutions were told to cut down expenses on water, electricity and telephone bills, cut down on overseas training and not to use public funds to print diaries and calendars for next year.