• CEB asked to formulate management plan
• Orders issued to stay new recruitments 
• Information on bonus and OT pay requested
• Expenses of outsourced services and bonuses sought

 Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera has written to Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Chairman Nalinda Illangakoon on Thursday (29 December), advising him to reduce the operational expenditure of the utility provider and to provide the ministry with a management plan, The Sunday Morning learns.

It is understood that in the letter dated 29 December, Minister Wijesekera had advised the CEB Chairman to suspend new recruitment to the CEB, which already has more than 25,000 employees. He had also advised the CEB to give advance notice to the ministry if any recruitment was needed to fill essential vacancies.

According to the letter, which The Sunday Morning has seen, the Minister had requested detailed reports on seven key areas of expenditure from the CEB.

As such, detailed reports on the monthly expenditure for outsourced services, overtime (OT) payments and justification for them, bonus payments, other benefits and payments made to employees, agreements entered into regarding periodic and mandatory pay increments, expenditure for rented offices and workspaces, and expenditure for vehicles obtained on rent basis or on lease had been sought by the Minister.

The Minister had also sought from the CEB Chairman a list of current employees and officials who had been released from service due to various reasons. “…please provide me with a complete list of such employees, how much they are being paid, what benefits they are entitled to, where or which institution have they been seconded to from the CEB, why they were released from service, and how long they have been employed with the CEB,” Minister Wijesekera had stated in the letter.

The Minister had also drawn the CEB Chairman’s attention to the public sentiments and concerns expressed about the CEB and its efficiency, calling on the CEB to reduce its expenditure as a matter of priority.

The letter comes in the wake of allegations by consumers, Opposition politicians, and analysts that the CEB was passing on its costs and inefficiencies to paying customers through the proposed electricity tariff increases, which are likely to be placed before the Cabinet this week for approval.

Last week the Ministry of Power and Energy denied allegations that the motive for the proposed increase in the electricity tariff planned for this month, and again after June, was to enable the CEB to pay off long-standing debts.