The government has taken every possible measure to contain the spread of COVID – 19.
It is the responsibility of every government, semi-government and private entities as well as the general public to ensure that the situation does to escalate to a pandemic.
After careful consideration of every aspect, the government has declared a period of work from home for both public and private sectors starting from March 20 to 27.
This duration is not public holidays except March 21st and 22nd.
The government should continue public services without any disruption. However, as a measure to prevent congregation of people, the government has decided to declare a week of work from home. The experience derived from this methodology will be used to implement a distant-public service mechanism in the future.
The relevant authorities should take steps to ensure continuous supply of essential services including health, public administration, transportation, banking, food, water, electricity, distribution of fertilizer and buying paddy.
The activities of District Secretariats and Divisional Secretariats should also be continued. When implementing the remote working system, the relevant Heads of Departments should take steps to limit to the extent possible summoning their staff to the office. The institutions can use alternative approaches like technological means such as e-mail, SMS and telephone, as well to do the file work from home.
Technological approach should be used to prevent the public from gathering at the offices, and to maintain the delivery of public service properly while solving the problems. If there is any additional cost involved in using personal telephones, the government will provide necessary reliefs in this regard.
In a situation like this the government expects all government officials to follow the proper strategy to maintain the delivery of public services.
The main objective is to prevent the spread of coronavirus to the level of an epidemic. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Heads of Institutions to apprise their employees regarding their strategies while implementing a proper system to limit their staff, as the services provided by various organizations are different.
The Private Sector has also been advised through all Chambers of Commerce to do their business as per above mentioned guidelines.
President’s Media Division
