Govt issued DO appointment letters for 16,800 graduates despite AG's concerns

The government yesterday presented Development Officer (DO) appointments to 16,800 graduates, despite the Auditor General expressing serious concern over the poor performance of such officers already in the over-staffed public service. The new intake is the second phase of the Government’s jobs-for-20,000-graduates initiative.

In a special audit report, the AG has questioned the efficiency of DOs, although he notes that the enrollment of graduates as DOs has contributed to the quantitative growth of the public sector over the years. The Special Report “on the Performance of the Development Officers in the Public Service” was based on a study carried out on 41,668 officers. The study has found that although the DO Service involved field work, 22 percent of DOs are stationed officers and the number of projects supervised by each of these officers was between 2 and 9.

The study says the non-implementation of the annual transfer procedure has led to a situation where officers had to serve in the same station for a long period and this had affected their performance.

Tuesday’s recruitment drive is described by government leaders as the second major graduate recruitment initiative undertaken by the present Government. At least 40 selected graduates from each district have been requested to be present at Temple Trees to receive their appointment letters officially during a ceremony presided over by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.