Sri Lanka has launched a centralised digital human resources management system for the public service as the government prepares to recruit more than 120,000 additional employees this year, according to Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Professor Chandana Abeyratne.
The GovHR (Public Service Human Resource Management Information System) was formally launched at the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA) auditorium under the minister’s leadership. The system, developed by the Ministry of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government, is intended to bring public-sector employee information and human resource administration into a single digital platform.
Sri Lanka currently has close to 1.2 million public servants, Abeyratne said, while allocations have been made for the recruitment of more than 120,000 additional employees during the year. The scale of the planned recruitment gives greater importance, according to the minister, to maintaining accurate personnel records and managing appointments and subsequent service-related procedures through a more efficient system.
GovHR is designed to cover the main stages of a public servant’s career, including recruitment, confirmation of appointments, promotions, transfers, local and overseas training, grievance management, performance assessments and retirement. The system is also intended to connect relevant information directly with other government institutions.
The ministry said the platform would reduce delays and inefficiencies associated with conventional paper-based administration. By bringing personnel records under a centralised digital system, the government expects to improve transparency, efficiency and accountability while creating a data-driven basis for institutional and national policy decisions.
Speaking at the launch, Abeyratne said the new system would help address longstanding problems involving government files. He said deficiencies in individual records had prevented some retired public servants from receiving benefits despite salary increases for public servants and pensioners. Institutions also face difficulties maintaining older archival records, including documents dating from the period of British rule, he said.
The minister said GovHR could provide a solution to documentation problems arising both when people enter the public service and when they retire. He added that more efficient human resource administration would contribute to improving the performance of the public service and enable government institutions to provide services to the public more effectively.
Abeyratne also linked the system to the government’s wider digitalisation programme, saying the initiative had received particular attention from President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. He described digitalisation as one of three priority programmes of the government, alongside the “Clean Sri Lanka” programme and the programme to eradicate poverty.
The minister credited Sri Lankan contributors, including Dr Hans Wijayasuriya, with making a substantial contribution to research and development supporting the country’s digitalisation efforts. He said the GovHR programme would provide significant support to the broader digital transformation of public administration.
Abeyratne acknowledged that implementing a new system would inevitably create difficulties and said overcoming them would be a collective responsibility. He called on public servants to adapt to what he described as the “System Change” sought by the public and to implement that change from within the public administration system.
