On May 17, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said, ‘at present, we have around 30 ministries. Let us maintain this number and avoid further expansion’. This affirms the current constitutional limit on the size of the Cabinet of Ministers, which is 30. This is double the number of 15 ministries recommended by Verité Research in a white paper setting out the design of a rational structure of government.

The Verité Research white paper titled “A Rational Method for Cabinet Formation in Sri Lanka’, issued in 2020, set out the following 15 ministries as providing an optimal rational structure for government.

1. Finance & Planning

2. Agriculture

3. Home Affairs & Public Administration