The need to build a waste and corrupt free country at least for the future generation was stressed by the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration, D. Dissanayake when he addressed the TISL/SLIDA Training Workshop on ‘Enhancing integrity in the Public Service’ recently.
Twenty two government officials from Kurunegala and Badulla Districts participated in the three-day Workshop held at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research Training Institute from10 June 2008. Officials from District Secretariats, Local Government Pradeshiya Sabhas, and Departments of Police, Health and Irrigation were among the participants.
Pointing out that the discipline in the public service and also in the civil society has eroded severely and that waste is enormous, Mr Dissanayke said that when people do wrong we should try to correct them. “Let’s do even the very little that we can do and make an impact among those around us. Let’s correct ourselves and then the ones around us and likewise we can go forward”, he said.
The workshop which was intended to ‘train trainers’, was addressed by A.K. Chandrakantha, former Deputy Director General of CIABOC (Commission for Allegation of Bribery or Corruption), M D A Harold, former Deputy Auditor General, W.A. Jayasundera, Additional Director/SLIDA, Rukshana Nanayakkara, Deputy Executive Director, TISL, and TISL Trainers & Divisional Secretaries A N Nilwala (Dehiowita), Bandula Harischandra, (Galle) & Vernon Perera (Ambalangoda).
Their presentations were intended to achieve the following objectives:
• Enhanced capacity of provincial departments to deal with corruption
• Increase knowledge and awareness of public officials of the forms and effects of corruption, and accountability in the public service
• Increase capacity and skills of public officials to proactively address corruption.