President to restructure state owned institutions: Viyathmaga members to be removed?

As President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has decided to move ahead with plans to completely restructure state-owned institutions and corporations, it is reported that he would remove all heads of institutions who have failed to show satisfactory progress in the recent past.

A senior official at the Presidential Secretariat said that the President has decided to start the overhaul process by removing members of the "Viyathmaga' organisation who have been appointed as heads of state institutions.

As such, the President has already instructed the Chairman and Director General of the National Youth Services Council, Theshara Jayasinghe, and the Chairman of the Vocational Training Authority , Damitha Wickramasinghe, to resign from their posts, the senior official said.

He further said that with several heads of state institutions to be axed in the coming days, the President will also look at removing ministers who have been unable to achieve satisfactory performances in their respective ministries.

Is the country run by 'Viyathmaga'?

The President has decided to clean house starting with the members of the 'Viyathmaga' organisation after considering allegations levelled against the organisation by certain elements within the government.

It is alleged that the current crisis faced by the government is due to the fact that the heads of Viyathmaga who run the country's affairs have no proper understanding of politics.

When we reached out to a close associate of the President, he rejected the allegations calling them totally unfounded.

"Since the new government assumed office, around 160 people have been appointed as heads of state institutions and corporations. Out of that amount, only 20 Viyathmaga members have been appointed as chairpersons. Even those are eminent professionals. There is only one Cabinet minister from Viyathmaga to go with 4 state ministers. Only one Governor out of the nine appointed represents the Viyathmaga organisation. With regard to ambassadors, only three have been appointed so far. Therefore, it is difficult to accept the idea that the Viyathmaga organisation is responsible for controlling the government's affairs. In fact, the government is controlled by the same old people," he added.