Minister wants department to post profits

By Sinniah Gurunathan

The Sri Lanka Postal Department incurred a loss of Rs 300 million last year, according to Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mahinda Wijesekara.

The minister said he had invited district and regional officers of the Postal Department for a conference in Colombo to find ways to make the department a profit making institution.

The minister was speaking at the opening of the newly rebuilt office of the Divisional Superintendent of Post Offices, Trincomalee. The reconstruction work was carried out by the Postal Department under a tsunami rehabilitation project funded by the Japan Bank for International Co-operation.

The Trincomalee office oversees 10 post offices, 49 sub-post offices and three agency post offices, with a total work force of 250, including postmasters, sub-post masters and field workers. The office opened on January 1, 1979 and subsequently moved to a rented building before returning to the original premises.