World Bank wants SL to trim public sector

Public Finance Review said.

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SRI Lanka must gradually trim its bloated public sector via well-targeted attrition policies focusing on the long term, a recent World Bank report has suggested.

The State pays public employees less than private sector peers and less than comparable economies, but employs more of them and should gradually trim or "rightsize" the public sector, the World Bank's Sri Lanka Public Finance Review said.

The report says that in the medium to long term, Sri Lanka can achieve further reductions in public sector employment through well-targeted attrition policies.

Further headcount cuts in the next two to three years may have adverse effects on service delivery, and the rightsizing of overstaffed sectors and professions should be gradual, recruiting new workers at a slower pace than new retirements, while preserving the availability of frontline education and health workers, the report recommends.

The desired reduction should be guided by workforce planning and a comprehensive functional review across the Government and quasi-Government sectors, coordinated by the Management Services Department of the Finance Ministry and Public Administration Ministry.

"The desired reduction of the public sector headcount should be guided by workforce planning and a comprehensive functional review of the entire (sector)," the World Bank review said.