It is a fact that no transfers, promotions, or new appoints should be made once an election is declared. However, this rule seems to be no applicable to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As such the Foreign Minister is trying to submit a cabinet paper tomorrow to promote Mr. R.M.A.Ratnayake, present Director General of the Administration Division of the Ministry to the rank of Additional Secretary.This was revealed by relaible sources from the MinistryThe cabinet paper has been prepared by Mr.Romesh Jayasinghe, the Foreign Secretary. Mr.Ratnayake belongs to Sri Lanka Administrative Service [SLFS]. Therefore, any promotion for him should be considered by the Ministry of Public Administration and not the Foreign Ministry.
However, Public Administration Ministry does not consider him for an additional secretary post since he is not senior enough to hold such a post. In addition, due to his worst track records the ministry might not consider him for a high rank.
As a result he is trying to get this post through the Foreign Minister. There are two reasons for this sudden move to appoint him as an additional secretary. One reason is to compensate him for his loyal service to the Foreign Minister.
He is behind providing vehicles and other facilities for the Minister's political campaign. Other reason is that Mr.Ratnayake might think that Minister Bogollagama would not win the election or he might not be the next Foreign Minister.
