Navigating bureaucratic autonomy and capacity: The path to public sector reforms

SRI Lanka desperately needs a high-quality public sector to attain its development targets.

- By Dhananjaya Madusanka Dissanayaka and Ishara Herath

The need to enhance the Government’s quality often appears as an objective of almost every Government.However, according to governance scholars, reducing the autonomy of bureaucrats does not always enhance the quality of Government. The relationship between bureaucratic autonomy and the quality of Government is assumed to be as illustrated in Figure 1. For instance, reducing autonomy from the A2 level to the A1 level will result in an enhancement of Government quality from the Q1 to Q2 level. However, any further reduction of autonomy below the A1 level will continuously reduce Government quality. Therefore, navigating bureaucratic autonomy should be understood as a complex task and must be handled carefully within the public sector reform agenda.

Hopes in bureaucratic capacity

In its effort to improve Government quality, the present administration has also paid attention to enhancing the capacity of the bureaucrats. This commitment is evident in several policy reforms. First, several initiatives showcase the strong emphasis on the digitalisation of public services. This priority is clearly reflected in the 2026 Budget [2]. Digitalisation has the potential to significantly enhance public sector efficiency by improving access to Government services such as payments, documentation, approvals, and information sharing through initiatives such as GovPay and online access to citizen documents.