The Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) ( Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා පරිපාලන සේවය; śrī laṁkā paripālana sēvaya) is the key administrative service of the

Government of Sri Lanka The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය, Śrī Lankā Rajaya; ta, இலங்கை அரசாங்கம்) is a parliamentary system determined by the Sri Lankan Constitution. It administers the isl ...

, with civil servants working for both in the Central Government as well as in the provincial councils. It was formed as the ''Ceylon Administrative Service'' (CAS) in 1963 as the successor to the

Ceylon Civil Service The Ceylon Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym CCS, was the premier civil service of the Government of Ceylon under British colonial rule and in the immediate post-independence period. Established in 1833, it functioned as part of the ...

which was abolished on May 1, 1963. It is the senior of the

public service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

s. Based on the

British Civil Service His Majesty's Home Civil Service, also known as His Majesty's Civil Service, the Home Civil Service, or colloquially as the Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports His Majesty's Government, which ...

the SLAS is the permanent

bureaucracy The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...

that helps the elected officials on day-to-day functions of government. They are selected, promoted by the Public Service Commission. But top positions in the government such as Permanent Secretaries are appointed by the President, in theory on the recommendations of the Public Service Commission. A Permanent Secretary is the top bureaucrat of the government ministry and is responsible for the day-to-day functions of the ministry whereas in theory the minister is responsible only for drafting policy. The head of the SLAS is the Secretary to the President. A Chief Secretary is a Special Grade officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service in the provinces which is equivalent to a Permanent Secretary of the central government known as Chief Secretary. There are nine Chief Secretaries, one for each of the

nine provinces The term Nine Provinces or Nine Regions (), is used in ancient Chinese histories to refer to territorial divisions or islands during the Xia and Shang dynasties and has now come to symbolically represent China. "Province" is the word used to ...

Grading schemes

Until 2005, broader term officers are classed into SLAS class 1 officers, SLAS class 2 grade 1, and SLAS class 2 grade 2. All grades from SLAS class 1 and above (see table) are part of the "Senior officers ". The Secretary to the Treasury was the traditional head of the Civil Service during the time of the old

, but in years after the establishment of the SLAS the President's Secretary is the de facto head of the SLAS if he/she is a former SLAS officer. After 1 January 2005 Sri Lanka Administrative service introduced four grades, such as: * Special Grade offices (present cadre is 200) * Class I officers (present cadre is 507) * Class II officers (present cadre is 639) * Class III officers (present cadre is 1059) Below the "Senior officers "(Special Grade offices, Class I officers and ), each individual department can put in place its own grading. The traditional titles for each grade of the civil service are as follows: * The post of Deputy Secretary is only used in the Ministry of Finance is ranked just below the post of Permanent Secretary.

Notable members of the SLAS

* Nissanka Wijeyeratne * Dharmasena Wijesinghe * Ronnie De Mel *

Bradman Weerakoon Deshamanya Robin Bradman Weerakoon, CCS (born 20 October 1930) is a Sri Lankan civil servant. As a senior bureaucrat of the Sri Lankan government, he served nine Sri Lankan heads of state in a career spanning half a century.David, Marianne (inte ...

Sarath Amunugama Sarath Amunugama, JP is a leading Sri Lankan academic, who is a professor of French and the founding Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Visual & Performing Arts, Colombo. He is a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya. Amu ...

*Wimal Amarasekara * Sanath Weerakoon * Prematilaka Mapitigama *

Lalith Weeratunga Lalith Chandrakumar Weeratunga ( Sinhala: ලලිත් වීරතුංග Tamil: லலித் வீரதூங்க) (known as ''Lalith Weeratunga''), (born 14 May 1950) SLAS, is the former Permanent Secretary to the President of Sri ...

* P.B. Abeykoon *

R. Paskaralingam R. Paskaralingam is a Sri Lankan civil servant. He was selected in one of the last batches of the Ceylon Civil Service, before it became the Sri Lankan Administrative Service. He was a government agent, served as secretary to the Treasury (19 ...

*Mahinda Deshapriya *Tilak Ranaviraja

References

External links

Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs
{{Civil service Civil Service of Sri Lanka Government of Sri Lanka * Public administration Administrative Service

Grading schemes

Notable members of the SLAS

See also

References

External links