Duties, functions of Namal Rajapaksa’s new ministry gazetted

A new Gazette Extraordinary has specified the duties, functions and institutional & legal framework of the Ministry of Development Coordination and Monitoring.

Thereby, the Department of Project Management and Monitoring will operate under the purview of the newly-established ministry.

Following the Cabinet reshuffle yesterday (August 16), Minister of Youth & Sports and State Minister of Digital Technology and Enterprise Development Namal Rajapaksa was assigned a new ministerial portfolio ‘Development Coordination and Monitoring’.

The relevant gazette notification has been issued by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

According to the communiqué, Minister Namal Rajapaksa is tasked with coordinating all development activities and monitoring of projects on the direction and guidance of the President in order to ensure a people-centric economic development through an effective and dynamic mechanism in place creating new opportunities within the framework of the National Development Programmes: “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour”.

The new ministry will be formulating policies pertaining to development coordination and monitoring in conformity with the prescribed Laws and Ordinance for the creation of a “Development Country” in terms of the policy statement, “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour” based on the national policies being implemented by the government.

The ministry’s subjects and functions further include implementation of projects under the national budget, state investments and National Development Programme and formulation of policies, programmes and projects in relation to the subjects and functions of the below-mentioned departments, state corporations and statutory institutions, their implementation, initiating follow-up actions and evaluation.

Special priorities of the new ministry are as follows:

1. Directing the District Secretary, Divisional Secretary and Heads of all other Institutions, including all officers at divisional level in speedily carrying out the instructions and executing directives given by the President with regard to the problems and issues presented by the people during the course of the programme: “Dialogue with the Village”
2. Effectively deploying for the provision of technical and advisory services, the Grama Niladhari officers, Development Officers (State Ministry of Home Affairs), Agricultural Research Assistants (Department of Agrarian Services), Samurdhi Development Animators and Officers (Department of Samurdhi Development), Family Health Officers (Department of Health Services), who are appointed for such village and Child Protection Rural Committees and Projects at residential level.
3. Expediting the execution of projects under implementation by the State Institutions within the Budgetary Framework 2021 – 2023 in the areas of authority of Pradeshiya Sabhas and the Divisional Secretariats, such as roads, supply of drinking water, electricity, telephone communication, playgrounds, schools, hospitals, vocational training institutions, urban universities, transfer of lands, banking and financial facilities, markets, stores and infrastructure facilities.
4. Expediting the implementation within the scheduled timeframe the locally and foreign funded projects, such as Kadawatha – Meerigama, Pothuhera – Katugasthota, Kurunegala – Dambulla, Kahathuduwa – Ingiriya – Ruwanpura, Port access roads and Athurugiriya Expressway, Marine Drive up to Moratuwa, Solar Power Plants (Siyambalanduwa), Solar and Hydro dual Power Plants (Punareen), Hydro Power Plants Projects (Moragolla, Broadland), Kumbukkanoya, Minipe Maha Ela, Umaoya last stage, North-Central Maha Ela, Talpitigala, Rivers Gin Nilwala, Maduruoya South Bank, Wattegedara Tank, Mundeniara Reservoir, Wayamba Maha Ela, Pahala Malwathuoya, Aththanagalla Reservoir, Basnagoda Reservoir, Aththanagalla – Minuwangoda, Kurunegala – Mahanuwara, Anuradhapura North, Kaluganga Water Supply Schemes and Polonnaruwa & Pahala Uwa Irrigation Projects, Colombo and 50,000 Suburban Middle Income Housing Projects, Galle, Kurunegala, Digana, Nuwara-Eliya, Dambulla Technology Parks Projects.
5. Housing and sanitation in the lands occupied by Samurdhi and low-income recipients and strengthening their economic standard by cultivation of crops, such as fruits, coconut, jak and breadfruit.
6. Monitoring the development activities assigned to the President’s Supervising Representatives appointed for the area of authority of the Divisional Secretariats.

(Source: Ada Derana)