Ranil comes to grips with need to trim public service and take a peace oriented path to development

GLP and Moragoda assisted in taking message overseas

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The radical overhaul and reform of the public service was also one of the priorities in Ranil's plan of action for the economy and good governance. Its main problem was that it had grown too large - almost one third larger than it needed to be - and was in need of redefining its role in the face of the private sector coming into various areas of production, distribution and exchange. The public service was sluggish, impervious largely to people's needs, badly politicized and, as many alleged, often corrupt.

Ranil had me appointed at the beginning of 2002 as chairman of the Administrative Reforms Committee (ARC) with a challenging set of problems to be sorted out. When we in the ARC began closely examining its structure and the manner in which it functioned, we found that Sri Lanka could probably do with a public service of three-fourths of its present size. A third mainly consisting of clerical and support level staff could well be hived out and put into more productive occupations.

The cost of the public service had increased enormously and the pension bill had reached very high levels. In fact, it was being said that each year about a quarter of the entire budget of the country was spent on maintaining a largely inefficient and unproductive public service. The frustration of the political authorities at their inability to get things done effectively and speedily was palpable.

The ARC needed to report to the prime minister and Ranil was very quick in giving our recommendations early approval.

He was quick in realizing the salient points in the recommendations and would substantially contribute to the formulation of the final document. I know that he spent much time and energy interpolating in hand (his handwriting was difficult to read and often Sandra Perera, who was his confidential secretary, had to be called in to decipher the scrawls and wriggles) various ideas into the body of the text, which were very helpful.