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Free
meals again in schools The measure
to re-introduce the provision of food/lunch is to be implemented
in five selected districts, the Ministry said. Accordingly, Vavuniya,
Ampara, Moneragala, Ratnapura and Hambantota have been chosen for
the food and nutrition programme. Malnutrition
in Vavuniya has been reported to be 37%, Ampara 34%, Moneragala
30%, Ratnapura 29% and Hambantota 29%. The programme will be in
force for an initial period of one year. The food and
nutrition programme will also be implemented in districts that were
affected by the recent floods. The Ministry said the distribution of free meals to school children initiated by late President Premadasa was brought to an end by the former government. Caning
teacher taken to courts Evidence from
ten children in Grade 5 who have been punished by the class teacher
has been recorded. All the children had stated that they were subject
to harsh corporal punishment often by the female teacher who hit
them on the head, shoulders, arms and legs. The teacher is alleged
to have called children by names of animals while also making them
kneel down the whole day at school. The NCPA said
that the teacher used a one and a half foot long cane to beat the
students. One child had said that the teacher was oblivious to their
feelings and beat them up mercilessly. When the case came up before
the Kandy Magistrate's Court, the Magistrate had ordered that the
children be subject to medical examination by the Kandy General
Hospital JMO. The NCPA conducted an investigation on July 30 at Dharmaraja Vidyalaya following which the teacher was produced before Kandy Magistrate Leon Seneviratne on August 1. The Magistrate released the teacher on Rs. 25,000 surety bail after advising her that her duty is to teach children and not hit them. The case will be heard next on December 10. Inefficient
tax collection deny billions for Lanka The Inland Revenue Service Union representing the Inland Revenue Department maintains that the top management in the department is doing little or nothing to put the IRD on the right track enabling a proper and efficient collection of taxes. They say that
the objective of the management in the IRD is not to maintain a
high degree of efficiency and productivity but to defend their positions,
which they use stubbornly and improperly for their personal gain. According to
the trade union, the under-utilization of the workforce at the IRD
is due to the non-implementation of a comprehensive human resources
management development program. This includes
the lack of a proper scheme for recruitment, promotions, training
and development, motivation, resolution grievances and disciplinary
matters of officers, based on modern scientific management concepts. Even though
there is a large number of graduates working at the Inland Revenue
Department much of their work is confined to clerical duties such
as computations and checking of assessments. Currently,
out of the 665 senior tax officers and tax officers holding statutory
powers 75 percent are graduates who perform clerical duties. However
there are only about 310 senior assessors and assessors vested with
statutory powers such as auditing of tax files and carrying out
field inspections. Trade unionist
charge that as a result of the number of the officials vested with
statutory powers being so few in number, field inspections and file
auditing in the IRD are not properly and efficiently carried out. "It is
the duty of the senior assessors and assessors to carry out field
inspections in order to know the authenticity of the estimates once
somebody provides estimates to IRD, but that duty is not efficiently
carried out today because of both insufficiency and inefficiency
of officials vested with statutory powers", a trade unionist
told The Sunday Times. He said that
conducting of raids which is a fundamental duty of the IRD to crack
down on tax defaulters is not being properly carried out because
of the dearth of assessors. Another factor
that is attributed to the inefficiency and lack of productivity
in the IRD are the defects that exist in the recruitment of assessors,
promotions of tax officers, training and development and advancement
of employees. The IRD management
is accused of favouring some candidates and giving them more marks
unfairly at the examinations held to select officers for the assessors'
grade while the tax officers grade is the discriminations that exist
at the selection examinations. The Inland Revenue Service Union
charges that the top management in the IRD is not keen to do any
restructuring programme of the IRD and to streamline its services
as it would then not meet their personal ends. The Union says
the IRD management has been able to avoid any strong protest from
the trade unions for its inefficiency and lack of productivity within
the IRD because the trade unions are under the control of the management. The Union states
that Sri Lanka Inland Revenue Service, Inland Revenue Staff Officers'
Union, Inland Revenue Deputy Commissioners' Union and the Joint
Committee of Trade Unions, Sri Lanka Inland Revenue Service which
represent the Inland Revenue Department are controlled by the top
management in the IRD. "The top
people in the IRD management dominate most of the trade unions in
the IRD and as a result there is no hue and cry against the management
from the unions compelling them to carry out their duties efficiently",
the Inland Revenue Service Union said. According to the trade union, inefficiency and lack of productivity overshadowed by under utilization has been there in the IRD for years, even though it came to light only recently with its failure to collect taxes running into billions from Sri Lanka's large business conglomerates. |
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