The state-owned Ceylon Fisheries Corporation (CFC) continues to remain a loss making and unprofitable business entity due to the over-staffing during the previous government, the Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Mahinda Amaraweera says. The number of excessive employees amounting to 450 was the most prominent factor that has caused the current unfavorable condition of the business institution, he says. According to the Minister the approved cadre of CFC was 645 whereas the current staff consists of 1113 employees. Nearly 450 of the present staff are excess employees and the income earned by CFC was inadequate for paying the total salary bill. Accordingly, Treasury funds to the tune of Rs. 210 million were utilized within the past 7 months in paying the salary of excessive employees. Therefore the monthly sum requisite in paying the salaries of the excessive staff was nearly 13 million, the Minister pointed out. Apart from paying salaries to excess employees, the Corporation owes Rs. 750 million to the fishermen and fishing companies for supplying fish to CFC and only Rs. 425 million of this amount has been paid by the Treasury. In this backdrop the Minister has proposed to implement a voluntary retirement scheme for the employees of CFC and nearly 300 employees by now have consented for voluntary retirement. In a progress review meeting held last week regarding the progress of CFC, the higher management of CFC informed the Minister that the employees were paid their salary of August from the first part revenue earned by CFC in this year as remedial measures. Hence considering the prevailing situation CFC could be revitalized to profit making levels by the end of this December. A number of management measures have already been taken in this regard. Minister Amaraweera also mentioned that five new fish markets are scheduled to be established at several locations of the island by the end of this year, and the Ministry of Finance has consented in granting Rs. 5 million funds for this purpose. Affiliated to CFC, two sales centers of seafood and food products of freshwater fish are to be established next year centering Colombo and Kandy with a view to increasing the annual income of CFC.
2000, 2016 by LankaPage.com (LLC).