272 vacancies in Dept of Immigration and Emigration as at October – COPA reveals

It was revealed at the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) that there are 272 vacancies in the Department of Immigration and Emigration as of October 1.

This was disclosed at the Committee on Public Accounts held in Parliament yesterday (16) under the chairmanship of Prof. Tissa Vitarana, Member of Parliament, the committee said. 

It was stated that there are 18 senior-level posts, 113 tertiary level posts, 121 secondary level posts, 19 primary level posts and one vacancy under the ‘other ‘category. The officials of the Immigration and Emigration Department were also of review that such vacancies would hinder the performance of the department.

The officials further stated that requests have already been made to fill these vacancies. It was also discussed that the “Electronic Travel Approval” system, which has been activated in collaboration with Mobitel since 2012, has not been updated with the aim of providing a more comprehensive and attractive tourist service. 

Therefore, the committee questioned the modernization of the system and the need to update it to suit the modern world. Accordingly, the system is already under consideration to be updated and will be done in the future, officials said. 

The Chairman of the COPA Committee, (Prof.) Tissa Vitarana recommended that a report be submitted within two months. It was also revealed that two vehicles owned by the department in 2012 and 2015 had been involved in an accident a few years ago and are yet to be repaired and used. 

The officials said that this situation has arisen due to a problem with the insurance company and that an agreement has been reached with the insurance company regarding the repairs.