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Who foots the bill for record Cabinet?

Govt. says no additional funds for ministries but questions remain

By Shanika Udawatte
With the UNF fast reaching the record set by the PA in relation to a jumbo size Cabinet, a government spokesman said the newly created non-cabinet ministries would not be given special allocation of funds.

Deputy Finance Minister Bandula Gunewardene told The Sunday Times that the funds would be allocated from the relevant ministries.

He said once the specific responsibilities of each new ministry was officially notified through the government gazette, it would be decided how much money should be allocated for each ministry and the funds would be transferred from the ministries which handled those subjects earlier, or from ministries that handled similar subjects.
However The Sunday Times learns that if the ministries, which release funds for the new ministries run short of funds, more money would be allocated to those ministries through a supplementary budget proposal.

According to a circular issued by the Prime Minister's office a non-Cabinet minister is entitled to a staff of more than 15 including a Private Secretary, a Media Secretary, a Public Relations Officer, a Coordinating Secretary, a Personal Assistant, Clerk, Stenographers, Office Assistants and drivers.

According to the salary particulars (inclusive of allowances) of these officers, the seven new ministries will have to spend over Rs. 110,000 as salaries and the government as a whole would be incurring an annual expenditure of over rupees ten million, only for the staff of the new ministers.

With the appointment of seven more non-Cabinet ministers and one deputy minister only 41 of the UNF's 114 members will not be holding any posts. However the record is so far held by the PA when 81 of their members held various posts when they were in office in 2001. But the figure was reduced to 40 - when they appointed 20 ministers and 20 deputies during the probationary government agreement with the JVP.

Meanwhile officials from the Administrative Services said certain ministry titles of the newly appointed ministries seem to be overlapping.

There are two new ministries, looking after agriculture -the Ministry of Paddy Cultivation and the Ministry of Agricultural Technology and Crop Productivity.
With the already existing ministry there would be three. They also questioned the necessity of a Ministry of Tourism Development since there is already a Ministry of Tourism.

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