Government Considers Cabinet Reshuffle

 

The first reshuffle in the Cabinet of the national unity government is in the offing for early next year, highly placed political sources said.

They said the reshuffle was likely to be made based on the performance of ministers over the last twenty months.

“The reshuffle would be made after deliberations between the President and the Prime Minister. It would be done in a manner that will strengthen the unity of the government. The UNP and the SLFP – the two main parties in the government – will share key responsibilities,” a senior government spokesman told the Daily News.

“It is not difficult to identify under-performing Ministers,” he added.

“The President and the Prime Minister, as the leaders of the national government, carefully monitor the progress of all government ministries - they have already identified areas that need to be fixed. It is in this context that the topic of a Cabinet reshuffle surfaced,” he explained.

He added that the composition of the Cabinet would not change as a result of the reshuffle.

This comes in the wake of an announcement that the performance of ministers would be measured, come January 2017, against objectives laid out in a Key Performance Index (KPI).

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, in his budget speech on November 10 had reiterated the government’s commitment to introduce KPIs to the top strata of the state sector, including Cabinet ministers.

Members representing civil society, who were instrumental in President Sirisena’s victory at the Presidential election, have also urged the President for an urgent Cabinet reshuffle, to remove those whom they termed “under-performing ministers”.

Civil society representatives had presented their request to the President in writing at a dinner at the President’s House, last month.