Squandering public funds

A one-year training course for a staff category described as ‘Assistant Managers’ is about to be kicked off by a state body linked to aviation at the Mattala airport premises at a cost Rs.5 million.

A retired public servant well past the age of 60 has already been appointed as the Director of this training programme launched for the first time and he is drawing a monthly salary of Rs.150,000, they say.

Cabinet approval is required for re-employment of a retired public servant past the age of 60 according to administrative regulations, but the regulations have been overlooked when making this appointment. 

They also have approved an allocation of Rs.1 million to meet unspecified expenses in respect of this training programme in addition to the Rs. 5 million already released, they say.