The Prime Minister took part in the 2024 budget committee debate which is held for 21 Expenditure Heads including the Prime Minister’s office, and he submitted information of the expenditure management of his office into the Hansard on 22.11.2023.
Accordingly, compared to the year 2021, the expenses of the Prime Minister’s Office have been reduced by 21% in 2022 and by 46% by October 2023. In the year 2021, the expenditure was 1661.7 million rupees, in 2022 it was 1310.4 million and by October 2023, the figure is reduced to Rs.705.7million. The special feature is that in 2021, Rs. 1661.7 million which has been allocated for the Prime Minister’s office from the budget had been spent but only Rs1310.4 million was spent out of allocated Rs 1432.8 million in 2022 and spent only Rs 705.7million out of allocated Rs. 1012.0 million in 2023.
Before Mr. Dinesh Gunawardena assumed the post of Prime Minister, the staff of the Prime Minister’s Office was over 500 during 2021-2022, but the number of staff has now been reduced to 285.
Accordingly, the salary expense in 2022 was Rs. 340.3 million and by 22.11.2023, the relevant expenditure was Rs. 208.2 million which has been reduced by 39%, and the cost of stationery has been reduced by 74% with the implementation of office work through electronic systems.
Due to the digitalization of the process of replying to the letters received by the Prime Minister’s Office, it has been possible to reduce the cost of postage and communication by 36%.
Although there were 178 vehicles in the Prime Minister’s Office in 2022, by the end of 2023, there are only 125 vehicles sufficient for service needs. Accordingly, Rs. 239.2 million of vehicle maintenance cost which was available in the 2022 has been reduced by 70% to Rs. 72.3 million in 2023.
The cost of fuel in the year 2022 Rs. 107 million is reduced to Rs 79.3 million in 2023 which indicates a decrease of 26%.
The Prime Minister’s Office was also able to save 15 million rupees by handing over the annual maintenance of the generators maintained under contract with the Ceylon Electricity Board to agencies, and accordingly the cost of maintenance of machinery was reduced by 31%.
While maintaining an efficient financial management, it is also special to further expand the responsibilities of the Prime Minister’s Office to cover more urgent cases to get rid of the country’s economic and social crisis. The limitation of expenses was not an obstacle in order to carry out the additional tasks assigned to the Prime Minister’s Office by the Cabinet of Ministers and maintain the services of the office without breakdown.
The Prime Minister’s Office has been entrusted with the weekly implementation of the National Operations Center for the resolution of issues related to 262 large-scale projects, as well as the preparation of a national water resource policy, the preparation of a national digital policy, the preparation of a sustainable energy policy, and the preparation of education strategies and policy frameworks.
Prime Minister’s Media