President appreciates COPA’s work in raising state sector efficiency

President Ranil Wickremesinghe today said that the work undertaken by the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) has contributed to raising the efficiency of the public sector and appreciated the work being undertaken by COPA Chaired by State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna.

He made the comments during a ceremony held at the Parliament complex to present gold and silver awards to 65 state institutions that had reached a high level of efficiency in 2019 and 2020 according to reports submitted by COPA. 

The awards ceremony was held in Parliament under the patronage of President Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena. 

President Wickremesinghe emphasised on the need to take the country forward on a financial programme that includes managing state expenses, giving value to every rupee, increasing revenue and continued strengthening of the economy. He said a strong administrative mechanism is needed to achieve this end. 

Addressing the gathering, COPA Chairman Lasantha Alagiyawanna congratulated all the state institutions that had won awards and said that 98 percent of state institutions have shown great improvement compared to 2015. 

A total of 833 state institutions were evaluated and 15 of them were awarded gold awards while 30 received silver awards for their levels of efficiency for the year 2019. For the year 2020, 15 state institutions were awarded the gold award for the year 2020 while 30 received silver awards. Accordingly, a total of 90 awards were handed out at the ceremony. 

More than 1000 state institutions including ministries, department and institutions coming under provincial councils joined the awards ceremony via Zoom.