According to the proposal of the Minister of Transport, Highways and Mass Media, Dr. Bandula Gunawardena, a program was held at the government news department auditorium to present appointment letters to the new drivers and conductors who were recruited for the vacancies in the Sri Lanka Transport Board under special cabinet approval.

On this occasion, appointment letters were presented to 24 novice drivers and 36 conductors who had completed their training.

The minister speaking on this occasion said that in the current situation faced by the country, it is not possible to make any recruitment for the public service for the next three years. According to the guidance of the International Monetary Fund for debt restructuring, a program of self-retirement of redundant employees of some public service organizations is currently being implemented.

This situation has arisen due to the provision of jobs in the public sector from time to time due to short-sighted political reasons. But as a government, it is no longer possible to act like that. According to the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund, we have to implement a long-term program to pay off the debt we have acquired until 100 years after independence.Accordingly, we have to pay off 37% of the loans we have taken in the next five years, 51% between 6 and 20 years and another 12% after that. No matter which party is in power, these conditions must be fulfilled. Without that, it is no longer possible to run governments by telling lies to the people.

In such a situation, due to the fact that people are more and more inclined towards public transport,  the need for public transportation is growing day by day. Due to this, it is considered a special opportunity to be able to give these new appointments to the Sri Lanka Transport Board with a special Cabinet approval. However, in completing the goals given to the institution, the rules related to fraud, corruption and irregularities have to be strictly enforced.

For the sake of the welfare of the institution's staff, attention has now been paid to providing insurance to all the employees, which has not been implemented before. We are also planning to prepare a program to return a part of the profits of the institution to the employees of the institution in the future with the collective efforts of everyone.

Sri Lanka Transport Board Chairman Mr. Lalith de Alwis, Chief Executive Officer Mr. Mahesh Kulathilaka, Deputy General Manager (Running) Mr. PandukaSwarnahansa and others attended this event.