COLOMBO (News 1st) – The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) disclosed there are 556 employees working under the daily wage basis and under contract basis as at December 31st 2021, exceeding the number of employees of the approved staff of the Western Provincial Road Development Authority.

Accordingly, it was disclosed that there are 396 employees under daily wage basis and 160 employees under contract basis.

This was disclosed at the Committee on Public Accounts chaired by the Hon. (Prof.) Charitha Herath, Member of Parliament, which met recently to examine the Auditor General's reports and current performance of the Western Provincial Road Development Authority for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020. 

The officials pointed out that these employees are essential employees. It is said that several attempts were made to recruit these employees on a permanent basis and it could not be done due to several factors including changes in policies due to the change of government.

These employees were recruited on the basis of projects and were paid from the profits of those projects.

(Prof.) Charitha Herath and the members present said that although there were a large number of projects in the past period, road development projects have been reduced due to several factors including the current dollar crisis. 

Therefore, if all these employees are hired on a permanent basis, they will have to pay their salaries from the treasury. Therefore, the members present pointed out that it is necessary to look into the confirmation of only the employees required and if there are excess of labor, they should be compensated for and considered for removal.

(Prof.) Charitha Herath recommended that a report be given to COPA within 3 months setting out the priority list of the number of employees according to requirement as there are only a few projects at the moment.

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