Delivering the keynote address during the inauguration of a Master of Science Degree program bythe Faculty of Graduate Studies at the Ratmalana General Sri John Kotelawala Defense University (KDU) for the academic year 2016,on 18 March, Deputy Minister of State Enterprise Development Eran Wickramaratne stressed that in orderforpublic enterprises to be more profitable, competition needs to be introduced to the sector through public private partnership.

Deputy Minister Wickramaratne made this observation while pointing out the recent failures of some public enterprises to provide continued service to the people.

“We have had three blackouts since September 2015. It was a single event that caused in system failure. It is unacceptable to have any kind of blackout in the modern world that we live in. Competition has to be the principal and the driving force in these kinds of spaces, whether it be within public enterprises or across the public enterprise or between the public enterprise and the private sector. The process of competition has to be subject to effective sector specific regulations,”Wickamarathne charged.

Calling for improved performance in public entities, State Enterprise Development Deputy Minister Eran Wickramaratne recently stressed the need for all planning activities of public enterprises to be tied to results.

Asserting that effective performance-oriented public sector management is an integral part of improving quality services, the minister said, “The public service in Sri Lanka at present is mostly evaluated and funded on the basis of how much spent, rather than on actual outcomes on performances. These services are financed with tax payers’ money. It is important that information on actual benefits is made available to the public and budgetary allocations are tied to outcomes.”