Dilrook Kannangara

A recent article titled – Constitutional inconsistencies relating to franchise” – prompted me to write this to clarify the constitutional consistency, the reasons for that and why no change should be made to mere clerical functions of unelected district secretariats. Any such change is a violation of Article 154 of the Constitution and is a non-starter.

Sri Lanka had government agents until 1992 when the Transfer of Powers (Divisional Secretaries) Act of 1992 was passed which transferred the powers of government agents to district secretariats. The term District Secretariat is just a glorified name for government agents. They have no governance and decision power over anything and are just part of the record keeping apparatus of the central government.

https://www.srilankalaw.lk/revised-statutes/alphabetical-list-of-statutes/1307-transfer-of-powers-divisional-secretaries-act.html

One main reason for the transfer of powers was to keep the purely clerical functions of district secretariats (DS) from interfering with the real devolved powers of the governments to newly set up provincial councils. In doing so, the parliament strictly avoided violating the Constitution as regards devolved powers to the provinces.

The DSs function under the preview of the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs. The main services which are delivered by DS are Registration of persons and their life events, Pensions, Social benefits, Motor Vehicle registration, Motor vehicle driving licenses and renewal of motor vehicle revenue licenses, passports, and issuance of various permits. Therefore, the Divisional Secretariat is identified as the one stop shop” for delivering most critical government services to the citizen. (Quoted)

https://www.icta.lk/projects-si/edivisional-secretariat-eds-project-2

These are mere clerical and record keeping functions and in no way represent the vast powers of provincial councils (most powers) and the central government (fewer powers). Besides, all DSs are controlled by one government minister – the Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs. The minister is not responsible and has no power whatsoever on, for instance, education, healthcare, irrigation, agriculture, highways, religious or cultural matters, public order, land, police, etc. These are carried out mainly by the Provincial Council and a small portion by the central government through its other respective ministries (not the ministry of public administration and home affairs).

In fact, given modern developments in information technology, it makes sense to remove the 25 District Secretariats, 320 Divisional Secretariats and 14,000 Grama Niladaris. They also have their staff. This expansion is a needless white elephant created by President Premadasa to appoint his own people into these functions while the existing Grama Sevaka function was already there. Now Sri Lanka has both and the services to the people have worsened. Removing this needless District Secretariat function along with it its junior levels would save the country over 8 billion rupees annually. All these services can be done by a government services office in all major towns by current government offices and personnel who work in them.

The difference of administrative district and electoral district affects only the Northern Province. In all other provinces, the administrative district (which is just an identifier and not assigned to any governance function or government power) and the electoral district are the same.

Provincial Council election and parliamentary election can still be held on a single day for the entire island under the current structure if the ruling party so wishes. Although Vanni is one electoral district, it’s electorates are also mapped to administrative districts very clearly. The demarcation is very clear. No change is required.

Provincial Councils have most powers of the nation. These are enumerated under the Provincial Council List of the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. These powers are devolved to provincial councils (devolved units). They do not share any of these powers with district secretariats. Instead, they have their own staff to carry out these functions. They may refer to district secretariats to obtain records of persons which can be done via any computer terminal in developed countries without the need for politicians’ appointees.

https://www.parliament.lk/files/pdf/constitution.pdf

No central government, its officers (let alone clerical functionalities of district secretariats) can and should interfere with these. If they do, they violate Articles 154A to 154T of the Constitution with severe punishment.

Then there is the reserved list which lists down the functions of the central government. These are carried out by respective ministries of the central government. Ministry of public administration and home affairs is just one such ministry. It controls, among others, district secretariats. Despite its name and its meaning to an unassuming person, public administration does not mean any administrative power. It only relates to mere administrative, clerical and people’s record keeping functions.

Concurrent list follows which lists down powers shared between the provincial council and the central government.

Under no circumstances should provincial councils (9) be replaced with district councils (25). This attempt was rejected by both the south and the north in 1982. District councils cost 3 times more than provincial councils as it has approximately 3 times more units, politicians, their staff, corruption opportunities, elections and waste. It can lead to new separatist movements in Nuwara Eliya, Colombo, Puttlam and Badulla districts while giving no national benefits in the north and east. Each district is a ridiculously small area needing absolutely no decentralized or devolved powers. Above all, no one wants these white elephant herds that can only ruin and disintegrate the nation further and drive away investors.

The Constitutional difference of electoral and administrative districts should be retained. Though it only has symbolic value (as actual power is clearly vested in the provincial councils and the central government and no power is constitutionally vested in the minister of public administration and home affairs per se), changing it is worthless to the people. Their expectations from the government are different.