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P.B. Jayasundera’s resignation accepted by President

27 Dec 2021

  • PM’s Secy. Gamini Senarath tipped to be replacement
  • SJB says Govt. blaming all failures on its secretaries
  BY Pamodi Waravita and Ruwani Fonseka The resignation letter submitted by President’s Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera had been accepted by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday (27) and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Secretary Gamini Senarath is tipped to be the next President’s Secretary, The Morning learnt. Several media outlets reported over the past few days that Dr. Jayasundera had submitted a lengthy resignation letter, highlighting the obstacles he faced in his position. The resignation follows continued conflicts between Dr. Jayasundera and the Cabinet of Ministers, with many ministers going on record stating that there are officials within the Government who wield greater power and influence than the ministers and who are responsible for the crisis facing Sri Lanka at present. Industries Minister Wimal Weerawansa, in a programme on Derana TV last week, questioned Dr. Jayasundera’s capabilities. “Why was he not elected the President if he is so good at this job? He seems to be the one knowing everything about the US dollar crisis and the World Bank. If he is that smart, then why could he not predict and prepare for the crisis we are in now?” questioned Weerawansa. With this resignation Dr. Jayasundera’s decades-long career in the state sector appears to have come to an abrupt end. He joined the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) as an Economist in 1974 and was later promoted to Senior Economist in the 1980s following his postgraduate studies in the US. In 1990, he was seconded to the Treasury (Ministry of Finance) as Economic Advisor. In 1995, he was appointed as Director General of the Department of Fiscal Policy and Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance and from 1997 to 1999, he served as the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury. He served as Secretary to the Treasury and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance from 1999 to 2001. He then served as Chairman of the Public Enterprises Reform Commission, Senior Policy Advisor at Ernst & Young Sri Lanka, and as Consultant to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Dr. Jayasundera was reappointed as Secretary to the Treasury and Ministry of Finance in 2004. A past pupil of Maliyadeva College in Kurunegala, Dr. Jayasundera graduated from University of Sri Lanka, Colombo in 1973 with a Bachelor’s in Economics. He also obtained a Master’s in Development Economics from Williams College in 1980 and a PhD in Economics from Boston University in 1984. Meanwhile, Samagi Jana Balawegeya (SJB) Opposition Parliamentarian Tissa Attanayake yesterday claimed in reference to Dr. Jayasundera’s resignation, that the Government is trying to “evade its failures by sending its secretaries home”. “When the Government’s failures surface, the Government cannot just ask secretaries to resign and escape from its responsibilities. The latest resignation is that of Dr. Jayasundera. Who made these appointments? If a certain individual is not suited for a role, then the person who made the appointment is also wrong. By appointing people who are not suitable for high positions in the Government, economic failure is made inevitable,” claimed Attanayake while speaking to the media yesterday. Attanayake also referred to the removal of Agriculture Ministry Secretary Prof. Udith K. Jayasinghe-Mudalige from his post last week, hours after he told the media that a food crisis could occur in the country. “Secretaries are being sacrificed to hide the incompetency of the Government. Last week, the Agriculture Ministry Secretary was fired for merely warning of a food crisis. Anybody can understand that a food crisis is on its way.” Dr. Jayasundera’s likely successor, Gamini Senarath, is an experienced senior officer in the Sri Lanka administration service and was appointed as the Secretary to the Prime Minister in August 2020. Senarath had served as the Additional Secretary and the Chief of Staff to the President during the tenure of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.


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