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The Ceylon Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym CCS, was the premier civil service of the Government of Ceylon under British colonial rule and in the immediate post-independence period. Established in 1833, it functioned as part of the executive administration of the country to various degrees until Ceylon gained self-rule in 1948. Until it was abolished on 1 May 1963 it functioned as the permanent
bureaucracy Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...
or
secretariat Secretariat may refer to: * Secretariat (administrative office) * Secretariat (horse) Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse who was the ninth winn ...
of Crown employees that assisted the Government of Ceylon.More on the Mandarins
/ref> Many of the duties of the CCS were taken over by the much larger Ceylon Administrative Service (CAS) which was created absorbing all executive management groups such as the CCS officers and the Divisional Revenue Officers' Service, was to be established with five grades. It was renamed following the declaration of the republic in 1972 as the ''Sri Lankan Administrative Service'' which is now the main administrative service of the Government.


History

The origins of the service dates back to 1798, when the
Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's government minister, minister in charge of managing certain parts of the British Empire. The colonial secretary never had responsibility for t ...
appointed several officers to assist the British Governor of Ceylon in the administration of the coastal areas. After Ceylon became a
crown colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony governed by Kingdom of England, England, and then Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain or the United Kingdom within the English overseas possessions, English and later British Empire. There was usua ...
in 1802, an advisory council was formed to assist the Governor, made up of the Colonial Secretary, Chief Justice, Commander of Troops and two other members. Colonial Secretary and the other two members where civil servants. Once the
Kingdom of Kandy The Kingdom of Kandy was a monarchy on the Sri Lanka, island of Sri Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in the late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century. Initially a client kingdom ...
was taken over by the British in 1815, a British Resident Sir John D'Oyly was appointed along with a Board of Commissioners who were civil servants. Following the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission recommendations administration of the coastal provinces and the former Kingdom of Kandy were merged and administration formed into one. Thus a central civil service, known as the Ceylon Civil Service was formed in 1833 to handle the administration of the island under the directive of the Governor. As per the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission, the
Executive Council of Ceylon The Executive Council of Ceylon was the executive council created in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) by the British colonial administration on the recommendations of the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission along with the Legislative Council of Ceylon in March 1 ...
and the
Legislative Council of Ceylon The Legislative Council of Ceylon was the legislative body of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) established in 1833, along with the Executive Council of Ceylon, on the recommendations of the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission. It was the first form of represe ...
were formed. Each had members of the Ceylon Civil Service as officials. Most of these were CCS officers including Colonial Secretary and Colonial Treasure. Government Agents were appointed from senior CCS officers to administrate each province. The
Donoughmore Constitution The Donoughmore Constitution (; ), created by the Donoughmore Commission, served Sri Lanka (Ceylon) from 1931 to 1947 when it was replaced by the Soulbury Constitution. It was a significant development. First, it was the only constitution in the ...
in 1931, replaced the Legislative Council and the Executive Council with the State Council of Ceylon and its Board of Ministers. Three of the Secretaries of the Board where the Chief Secretary, Treasury Secretary and the Legal Secretary. The Chief Secretary, as did his predecessor the Colonial Secretary had complete control over the public services. By this time, Ceylonese were admitted to the service which had previously been limited to Europeans. The Soulbury Constitution in 1947, brought about self-rule with full power being vested in the legislator and making the Ceylon Civil Service answerable to Parliament.


Grades

The civil service was made up of several grades, appointments to these grades will be made by the Public Service Commission; * Class I **Grade I **Grade II * Class II * Cadet **Passed Cadets **Unpassed Cadets * Class III The formally the Chief Secretary of the Government of Ceylon was the head of the CCS, since 1948 this functioned was carried out by the Secretary to the Treasury. Senior appointments such as department heads and government agents were made from members of the Class I. The senior most officers of the CCS were appointed as Permanent Secretaries, however they would leave the CCS for the duration of the appointment. Admission to the service was made from the grades of ''Cadet'' and ''Class III''. In the early days, the CCS was staffed by Europeans, members of the
British Civil Service In the United Kingdom, the Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports His Majesty's Government, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government, which is led by a cabinet of ministers chosen ...
and only later were Ceylonese admitted. Only six (or in some years only one) out of a very large number of applicants were selected into the Cadet grade by open competitive examination from graduates with first class honours degrees, between the ages of 22 and 24 with the rare exception made for those with war time service following the world wars. The selected were classed as cadets and trained on public administration. Designated as ''Unpassed Cadets'' they would receive job experience with rotation, serving in the districts, in public corporations, ministries and being part of ministerial delegations travelling abroad. After completion of two years of service, they would face an efficiency bar exam and interview and be entitled to draw pay as ''Passed Cadet'' and will be entitled to appointed to the grade of ''Class II''. The Public Service Commission on recommendation of the head of the CCS will appointed to the grade of ''Class II'', Cadets entitled for promotion and officers from Class III which was a rarity. Cadets who failed to pass the efficiency bar exam in three years had their appointment from the CCS terminated. Officers of Class II would take up posts such as assistant secretary, assistant commissioner or assistant government agent. Their training included a certain degree of practical legal training and examination as most Cadets and Class II officers used to function as Police Magistrates or
Magistrates The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a ''magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
. To maintain seniority in the Class II, junior officers had to undertake a second efficiency bar exam and interview. Officers of the General Clerical Service with about twenty years of service were selected to be appointed to the Class III. They would serve as Personal Assistants or Office Assistants, retiring from public service in the grade of Class III, CCS. This ensured that the top administrative positions during the colonial-era and top non-elected government positions in the post-independence era were held by the best available candidates who were well trained and experienced. This was very important since the appointments were permanent. The officers of the CCS therefore commanded a high level of respect and considered themselves elite, a situation which has continued into the early 21st century. When the CCS was abolished its officers were taken in to the Ceylon Administrative Service, the successor to the Ceylon Civil Service.


Positions

The following posts were normally held by CCS officers: *Land Commissioner * Government Agent (nine provinces) *Principle Collector of Customs *
Registrar General General Register Office or General Registry Office (GRO) is the name given to the civil registry in the United Kingdom, many other Commonwealth nations and Ireland. The GRO is the government agency responsible for the recording of vital record ...
*Registrar of Co-operative Societies *Settlement Officer *Commissioner of Motor Traffic *Director of Land Development *Controller of Immigration and Emigration


CCS members who entered politics

* C. P. de Silva – Cabinet Minister and Leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party * Cathiravelu Sittampalam – first Cabinet Minister of Posts and Telecommunications *Sir Arthur Ranasinghe – Cabinet Minister *Sir Kanthiah Vaithianathan – Cabinet Minister of Housing and Social Services * Deshamanya
Nissanka Wijeyeratne Deshamanya Nissanka Parakrama Wijeyeratne () (14 June 1924 – 7 January 2007), known as ''Nissanka Wijeyeratne'', was a Sri Lankan politician, civil service, civil servant, diplomat and English language poet. He was also the 17th Diyawadana ...
– Cabinet Minister of Education, Higher Education and Justice * Ronnie De Mel – Cabinet Minister of Finance * Sarath Amunugama – Cabinet Minister for Special Projects, Public Administration, Home Affairs and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning * Walwin de Silva – former Member of Parliament


Notable members of the CCS

* Lord Somerset *Sir Philip Wodehouse *Sir
Walter Edward Davidson Sir Walter Edward Davidson, (20 April 1859 – 16 September 1923) was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. He served periods as Governor of the Seychelles, Governor of Newfoundland and as Governor of New South Wales, where he died in ...
*Sir Franklin Gimson *Sir James Thorburn *Sir Malcolm Stevenson *Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam *Sir Richard Aluwihare * Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe * Wilhelm Woutersz * Herbert Tennekoon * Neville Jansz * C.A. Coorey * James Alfred Corea * Ananda W. P. Guruge *
Prematilaka Mapitigama Prematilaka Mapitigama, also known as K. W. M. P. Mapitigama, (7 January 1930 – 14 April 2012) ( Sinhala: ප්‍රේමතිලක මාපිටිගම) was a senior Sri Lankan civil servant, author and a publisher. As the Secretary ...
* M. J. Perera * Gunasena de Soyza * G.V.P. Samarasinghe *
Bradman Weerakoon Deshamanya Robin Bradman Weerakoon, CCS (born 20 October 1930) is a Sri Lankan civil servant. As a senior bureaucrat of the Sri Lankan government, he served nine Sri Lankan heads of state in a career spanning half a century.David, Marianne (in ...
* K. Alvapillai *
Leonard Woolf Leonard Sidney Woolf (; – ) was a British List of political theorists, political theorist, author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author Virginia Woolf. As a member of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party and the Fabian Socie ...
* Harry Charles Purvis Bell *
Walter Terence Stace Walter Terence Stace (17 November 1886 – 2 August 1967) was a British civil servant, educator, public philosopher and epistemologist, who wrote on Hegel, mysticism, and moral relativism. He worked with the Ceylon Civil Service from 1910 to ...
*
Robert Caesar Childers Robert Caesar Childers (; 183825 July 1876) was a British Orientalist and the compiler of the first PaliEnglish dictionary to be published. He was the father of the Irish nationalist Erskine Childers and the paternal grandfather of the fourth ...
* P. G. Punchihewa * Robert Atherton (civil servant)


People who refused to join the CCS

*Sir James Peiris


See also

* Sri Lankan Administrative Service *
Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...


References

{{British Ceylon period topics Government of Sri Lanka *