Sri Lanka Navy Secures National Productivity Award 2025/26 in Public Sector Inter-Departmental Category
The Sri Lanka Navy was one of four institutions awarded first place in the Public Sector Inter-Departmental Category. Photograph: The Island.
The Sri Lanka Navy has received national recognition for productivity after being named one of four institutions to secure first place in the Public Sector Inter-Departmental Category at the National Productivity Awards 2025/26.
The award was presented to the Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Damian Fernando, by the President at a ceremony held on 8 November at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo. The recognition followed an evaluation in which six specialised Navy units took part, bringing together a range of institutional functions under a shared assessment of leadership, planning, service feedback, management and innovation.
For readers in Sri Lanka and abroad who follow the work of the country’s public institutions, the achievement offers a positive account of how productivity is assessed beyond a single project or department. The award’s criteria place emphasis on the systems and practices that contribute to effective organisational performance.
The National Productivity Awards ceremony was held in Colombo on 8 November. Photograph: The Island.
A nationwide programme recognising productivity
The National Productivity Awards are organised annually by the National Productivity Secretariat under the Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development. The competition is intended to foster productivity, efficiency and innovation across public and private sector institutions, educational organisations and micro-enterprises nationwide.
This year’s programme was conducted in alignment with the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ national initiative. Within that broad framework, the Navy’s recognition came in the Public Sector Inter-Departmental Category, where four institutions secured first place.
The inter-departmental nature of the category is significant: the Navy’s result was supported by the participation of six specialised units in the evaluation process. Their involvement shows the breadth of functions considered as part of the institution’s submission, while the award itself recognises the Navy among the category’s four top-ranked institutions.
Six units represented in the assessment
The units representing the Navy were the Naval and Maritime Academy, the Commodore Superintendent Dockyard (East), the Green and Blue Project, the Research and Development Unit, the Machinery Testing & Trails Unit and the Naval Boat Building Yard.
Together, they reflect a range of institutional responsibilities, from education and research to dockyard work, boat building and environmental initiatives. The Green and Blue Project was among the units included in the evaluation, placing sustainability-related work within the wider productivity assessment.
The award was not based simply on one activity or a single output. The published criteria included leadership, client feedback, strategic planning, human resource and knowledge management, organisational results and effective innovation. Considered together, these areas provide a structured way to examine how an institution sets priorities, manages its people and knowledge, responds to feedback and pursues improvement.
The available coverage does not provide individual scores for the participating units. It does, however, set out the range of criteria and confirms that six Navy units took part in the evaluation. The result therefore offers recognition at institutional level, while acknowledging the contribution of units with distinct areas of work.
An AI-generated illustration representing planning, innovation and sustainable public service; it is not a photograph of the Navy or the award.
Assessment focused on effective public service
Productivity in public institutions is often understood through the quality of processes as well as the services delivered. The criteria listed for these awards reflect that wider view: strategic planning and leadership help establish direction, while client feedback can inform how services are experienced. Human resource and knowledge management concern the way skills and institutional knowledge are developed and applied, and organisational results and innovation provide further measures of performance.
Such criteria are relevant to public institutions because improvement tends to require sustained attention across different areas, rather than reliance on a single initiative. A formal assessment can make those areas visible and encourage institutions to examine how they plan, learn and adapt. The award is a national recognition of the Navy’s standing in this particular competition; it is not, on its own, a detailed account of the results achieved by each participating unit.
The ceremony was attended by senior Navy officers, including Director General Engineering Rear Admiral Hasantha Dassanaike and Director General Policy and Plans Rear Admiral Jayantha Bandara. Representatives of the six units also attended.
Those representatives included Commodore Nalinda Dissanayake, Commandant of the Naval and Maritime Academy; Commander Arunoda Samaranayake, Manager of the Naval Boat Building Yard; and Commander Gihan Premathilaka, representing the Green and Blue Project. Lieutenant Commander Sarath Jayasinghe represented the Machinery Testing & Trails Unit, Lieutenant Commander Hasitha Dilshan represented the Commodore Superintendent Dockyard (East), and Lieutenant Commander Chamara Kuruwitha Bandara represented the Research and Development Unit.
A milestone to share at home and abroad
The Navy’s placement among the four institutions awarded first place gives Sri Lankan readers a timely example of national recognition based on productivity, efficiency and innovation. It also highlights the contribution of specialised units whose work formed part of the assessment, including the Green and Blue Project.
For Sri Lankans living overseas, stories of institutional achievement can offer a meaningful connection to developments at home. This recognition is particularly relevant to readers interested in how public organisations are assessed and how productivity frameworks encourage attention to planning, organisational learning and service improvement.
The award is best understood as a milestone within an ongoing process: productivity gains are sustained through consistent evaluation, effective management and the willingness to improve. By recognising the Navy in the National Productivity Awards 2025/26, the programme has brought attention to the value of those principles across the public sector.
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Source: The Island. Sri Lanka Navy secures National Productivity Award 2025/26. Additional source: Sri Lanka Navy official announcement.
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