-By LeN Political Editor
(Lanka-e-News -22.May.2025, 11.20 PM) After months of turbulence, inefficiency, and internal distress, the Cabinet has finally disembarked Nilusha Balasooriya from the cockpit of the Department of Immigration and Emigration, clearing the runway for Chaminda Pathiraja—a seasoned bureaucrat with aviation-grade administrative acumen.
In a move that will come as no surprise to those who have endured months of bureaucratic bickering and public frustration at Bandaranaike International and beyond, the Sri Lankan Cabinet, at its sitting on May 19th, has approved the removal of Ms Nilusha Balasooriya from her post as Controller General of Immigration and Emigration. Her replacement? Mr Chaminda Pathiraja, a senior administrative officer known more for his punctual reports and efficiency than his appetite for photo ops.
According to Cabinet sources, the appointment was necessitated by an "urgent need for operational leadership" at an institution that was once hailed as one of the best-functioning departments in Sri Lanka’s civil service apparatus—until it wasn’t.
Ms Balasooriya, appointed with high hopes and presumably sound credentials, managed to sink the department's performance metrics faster than a corrupted biometric scanner. From day one, internal murmurs began surfacing, suggesting the new Controller General was simply not in control.
Senior officials, as well as frontline officers in the department, reportedly raised red flags with everyone from the Secretary of the Ministry to the Deputy Minister, and even the Minister himself. Yet, for nearly seven months, those signals seemed to vanish into the same bureaucratic black hole where many Sri Lankans' passports now reside.
“The department has gone from model agency to a malfunctioning mess,” quipped one senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity, presumably for fear of joining Ms Balasooriya in professional purgatory. “We had people stuck at airports, visa processing delays, and inexplicable administrative bottlenecks. It was no longer a department; it was a diplomatic hazard.”
The final push appears to have come from a rather unlikely crusader for good governance—lawyer, activist Namal Rajapaksa. In a written complaint addressed directly to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Rajapaksa drew attention to the ongoing dysfunction, describing the situation as “unsustainable” and “a threat to national operations and public trust.”
While some political observers were quick to dismiss Rajapaksa’s intervention as theatrical, it evidently had the desired effect. The President reportedly took the complaint seriously and wasted no time instructing the Ministry of Public Security to “sort it out”—which in Sri Lankan bureaucratic parlance is the closest one gets to a political exorcism.
Within days, the Cabinet was furnished with a new name: Chaminda Pathiraja, a Special Grade officer in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service, currently serving as Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Industries. His CV, unlike his predecessor's tenure, appears to be in working order.
Pathiraja is no stranger to immigration. In fact, he previously served in the very department he now heads, earning a reputation for precision, reform-minded thinking, and an uncanny ability to remember staff birthdays—rare traits in a public service ecosystem more accustomed to inertia than initiative.
“He knows the ropes, and more importantly, he knows where the ropes are frayed,” said one Department employee. “He’s not going to be dazzled by biometric gadgets or fancy donor-funded pilot projects. He wants real reform.”
Indeed, many within the department have expressed a rare, almost un-Sri Lankan optimism at the appointment. Officials highlight his previous work on modernisation efforts and familiarity with the legal and procedural framework that governs immigration functions. As one wag put it, “At least we won't be using Windows XP anymore.”
That optimism extends, interestingly, to Mr Imal Gunawardana—the current Acting Controller General—who is known for his understanding of digital governance and modern administrative systems. Gunawardana, according to departmental sources, has already begun laying the groundwork for overdue IT infrastructure upgrades, including a secure digital visa processing platform and real-time passenger tracking system.
While Mr Pathiraja assumes the top job, there is some hope that the duo will work in tandem to finally deliver a service that reflects 21st-century expectations rather than post-colonial paper trails.
But, as ever in Sri Lanka, hope must be tempered with history. For decades, civil service reform in the country has been less a process and more an idea: invoked often, implemented rarely. One just has to look at the piles of unprocessed dual citizenship applications, the obsolete software, and the unnerving frequency with which people at Colombo airport are told, “System eka down” (the system is down).
The appointment of Chaminda Pathiraja comes with a mandate: fix the broken engine, reboot the system, and re-establish public trust in a department whose primary job is to move people efficiently, not mire them in bureaucratic mud.
Already, murmurs of reform are echoing down the corridors. Staff morale appears to be lifting. Meetings are reportedly starting on time. Departmental WhatsApp groups—normally used to trade gossip and lunch menus—are now circulating reform memos.
But for Pathiraja, the true test will not be press statements or inter-ministerial compliments. It will be whether the Department of Immigration and Emigration can, once again, become a place where passports are processed on time, where systems don't crash during tourist season, and where staff believe they’re part of something functional.
There’s an old saying in political circles: You know things are serious when the Cabinet acts before the Lanka-e-News do.
In this case, the lesson is both cynical and reassuring. Cynical, because it took half a year of dysfunction and a politically strategic complaint to move the wheels. Reassuring, because at least the wheels still move.
The replacement of Ms Balasooriya and appointment of Mr Pathiraja is not just a routine reshuffle—it is, if executed well, a turning point for one of the country’s most vital institutions. For a nation that needs tourists, emigrants, investors, students, and foreign workers to move in and out with ease and dignity, the Immigration Department cannot afford to be run like a vintage Lada on a mountain pass.
For now, all eyes are on Chaminda Pathiraja. May his tenure be less Kafka, more Heathrow.
-By LeN Political Editor
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by (2025-05-22 19:07:54)
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