The Hon. (Dr.) Upali Pannilage

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, over 25,000 staff serve in the Samurdhi Development Department. This issue affects only a small fraction, arising due to the lack of minimum educational qualifications.

¶ 02 Last week, I convened a special discussion with the Director-General of Pensions, officials of that Department, and officers of our Ministry and the Samurdhi Development Department. We proposed several workable solutions. As for an interim allowance, the Pensions Department stated that under current laws and regulations we cannot do so. They advised us to submit a Cabinet Paper to obtain Cabinet approval. We are now following that course to resolve the issue for officers lacking minimum qualifications. As for others, there were many serious issues when converting contributors from the Employees’ Provident Fund to pension entitlement during the transition from the Samurdhi Authority to the Samurdhi Development Department. We have now resolved all those issues.