The Hon. (Dr.) Susil Ranasinghe - Minister of Housing, Construction and Water Supply
The Minister tabled a written answer on the National Housing Development Authority’s technical staff, stating that the former unified Technical Officers’ Service was abolished from 1 January 2006 under Management Services Circular No. 30 and that current staff have been restructured accordingly. He said NHDA’s technical workforce stood at 412 as at 30 November 2025, that no per-kilometre travel allowance is paid, and that eligible field-based staff receive a combined allowance for up to five days per month under the latest instructions in Management Services Circular 01/2025. The answer also stated that promotion procedures are being updated according to Department of Management Services guidance, 2026 development allocations total Rs. 17,137.4 million including Rs. 12,128 million from the Treasury, and the number of technical officers is sufficient for those allocations.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I table the answer.
¶ 02 Answer tabled.
¶ 03 (b) (i) Not applicable in the manner asked.
¶ 04 Notes: - A unified Technical Officers’ Service at the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) existed for the permanent cadre from 1999.10.01, but was abolished from 2006.01.01 following Management Services Circular No. 30. - Therefore, no permanent technical officers now serve under that abolished service. Staff who served under that service were re‑structured per Management Services Circular 30; as at 2025.11.30, NHDA’s technical workforce (including contract/daily‑paid) is 412. - NHDA does not pay per‑kilometre travel allowances for field duties. - For field‑based technical staff (Technical Assistants, Engineering Assistants, Engineers), a combined allowance up to 5 days per month for field duties is approved by the NHDA Board. - The latest instructions on the per‑day combined allowance are in Management Services Circular 01/2025 (20th paragraph) dated 2025.03.25; thus that is the approval date. - Updating the promotion procedure is being carried out per DMS guidance. - 2026 allocations: Treasury Development Programme – LKR 12,128.0 million; total estimated development programme – LKR 17,137.4 million. - Number of technical officers is sufficient relative to allocations.
¶ 05 (c) Not applicable.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 23 January 2026 ·No. 23290 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Susil Ranasinghe - Minister of Housing, Construction and Water Supply. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 23 January 2026. No. 23290. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/14328