Strategic Enterprise Management Agency (SEMA) headed by Asoka Abeygunawardana will halt all its functions next month, sources in the organisation said.
The disbandment of the organisation, which functioned under the Presidential Secretariat and was tasked with formulating strategic plans for various key sectors of the Government, comes after the Cabinet of Ministers on July 7, 2018, decided to shut down the agency and decreed that all financial transactions of the institution should be concluded immediately. According to sources within SEMA, the Cabinet had made the decision on the directive of President Mathripala Sirisena. Writing to Abeygunawardena Additional Secretary to the President A. Muthumala last Friday, September 14, requested Abeygunawardena to end all operations of the Agency with immediate effect.
SEMA was mandated to assist State-owned strategic enterprises to devise policy frameworks for their long-term sustainability to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the economy by upgrading these enterprises on par with their private sector counterparts while retaining State ownership. Sources say, however, the President had made the decision due to the inactivity of the Agency.
While the Agency employees 45 staffers, inside sources said no information regarding their fate has been conveyed to them yet.