The Hon. P. Ruwan Senarath - Deputy Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government

¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, I answer on behalf of the Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government.

¶ 02 (a)(i) Yes.

¶ 03 (ii) Under the “Employment Programme for Unemployed Graduates – 2020,” applications were called by the then Secretary to the President on 07.02.2020. Subsequently, while letters of appointment were being issued to trainee graduates, the Election Commission ordered the process to be halted due to the declaration of a general election. Accordingly, those appointments were revoked. Thereafter, the Presidential Secretariat reviewed the applications anew and prepared a rejected list, which was forwarded to this Ministry with instructions under ref. PS/OMC/OI/01 dated 14.08.2020 on how to proceed with the programme.

¶ 04 (iii) According to that rejected list, there was no provision to appoint graduates of foreign universities as Development Officers. If any graduate of a foreign university not included in the rejected list had later been appointed as a Development Officer, such appointments had to be revoked.

¶ 05 (iv) For recruitments to various posts in the public service, the provisions in certain existing service minute schemes allow graduates of foreign universities to enter the public service; there is no bar. However, when recruiting trainee graduates, one cannot act contrary to the procedures announced in the relevant call for applications.

¶ 06 (v) Does not arise as per (iv).

¶ 07 (vi) Under the 2020 graduate employment programme, the maximum age limit was considered as 45 years as at 31.12.2019. Those who had not exceeded 45 at that time, but had exceeded it at the time of confirmation—i.e., at the date of formal appointment to the Development Officer Service—were appointed to the Development Officer Service.

¶ 08 (b) Not applicable.