New Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government visit the Department of Pensions
Mr. Pradeep Ysarathna , new Seceretary of the Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government, visited the Department of Pensions, which manages the payment of pensions of whole the pensioners' community under the Ministry, today (07.03.2024) to supervise its functions.
During his visit the Secretary inspected the pension application and then observed the functions of all the divisions including Decentralized Division, by which the first pension is activated, information Technology Division, Widows' and Orphans' Division, Foreign Pension Division, Policy Division, Contributions Divisions, Internal Audit Division, Armed Forces Division, Accounts Division and 1970 Hot line Service.
He stated that he would take prompt action to solve the issues of pensioners joining with the Department of Pensions as he has a wide understanding on the problems of pensioners as a result of working very closely with the Department for a number of years in the past.
In the meantime, he appreciated the organization structure of the Department, which has been arranged to maintain pension process, the largest social security system of the Island. Further he expressed his commendation to the whole staff including Mr. A Jagath D Dias, Director General of Pensions for the services delivered efficiently and in an well organized manner to ensure the welfare of pensioners' community.
Department of Pensions commences its works following the traditions of Sinhala and Tamil new year
Officers of the Department of Pensions have made arrangements to commence its functions today , the first working day after celebrating the traditions of Sinhala and Tamil new year. During the function, Mr. A jagath D Dias, Director General of Pensions extended his new year greetings to the pensionsers community of over 710,000 including officers working attached to the Head Office of the Department of Pensions, officers working attached to Divisional Secretariats all over the Island.
He further extended his gratitude to the officers who shoulder huge responsibilities behind the screen to assure pension benefits to all the officers retire from public service and their heirs applying the modern information and communication technology. In the meantime he pointed out the fact that the commitment of all staff is highly necessary to build a well secured pension scheme with the new year by way of finding solutions for the crisis faced by pensioners as the Department had successfully faced with challenges during the recent past for the maintenance of pension scheme.
The programme, which is carried out every as per the concept introduced by the Director General to appreciate the employees of cleaning service, has also been conducted to give due recognition to them for their commitment to maintain the cleanliness internal and outside environment.
The Director General, Mrs. Sujani Peththawadu, Additional Director of Pensions and all the officers have participated in the event. This short celebration, which was held whilst providing services to the pensioners, who have come for the interview, conducted at Sathkara Piyasa for activating pension and for various other matters, was followed by a traditional sweetmeat table arranged by the Welfare Society of the Department and officers and the recipients of the Department have joined with this happy moment.
Officers of Naval and Maritime Academy, Trincomalee are at the Department of Pensions on a study tour
A group of officers from Naval and Maritime Academy, Trincomalee came to the Department of Pensions on a study tour on 14.12.2023 to have an understanding on the functions of the Department, which pays the pension and other relevant payments of the workforce of all armed forces including Sri Lanka Army, Navy, Air Force. During this visit they were made aware of the methodology followed to calculate the benefits paid to the officers of armed forces and their dependants. In the meantime they were given opportunity to have a picture on the widows' and orphans' pensions schemes and also to visit the divisions of the Department, which shoulder different tasks of the Department. The group of consisted of 47 officers.