There are 14, 022 Grama Seva divisions in Sri Lanka in perhaps one of the best designed admin networks anywhere.  But the questions is – are they being mobilized to their full potential?  Grama Seva Officers mostly serve an admin function but the system has designed them for a far more crucial and active role in ensuring the well-being of the population through micro-management of social issues and in ensuring the administration of the government machinery at the easiest manageable levels.

From food distribution to law and order and managing personal emergencies and grievances, GS Divisions could be transformed into Mini Operations Centers where the GS is in constant and direct touch with households under his purview while being an integral lifeline to admin hierarchies.  Each GS serves approximately 100 to 500 households in most cases.  Covid-19 crisis is reporting a lack of real-time connection between these admin officers and households – in the village or in the city.

The ideal scenario would be to create a Operations Center around each GS and with the full deployment of the Community Police Units operating under the supervision of area OIC, also bringing medical officers, agriculture officers and consumer protection officers into a micro network.  Essential to their success is a communications system which in the end gives peace of mind to the President himself that the administrative system does indeed operates as envisaged – even during grave calamities!  Going forward, an operating manual in a worse-case scenario is a point of research for CIRA.

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Published 2nd April 2020