The Buildings Department had functioned as part of the Public Works Department (PWD) for over a century until the PWD was abolished. It was established as an Independent Department in 1969. As part of the PWD, the Buildings Department had been the sole authority for construction and maintenance of Government Buildings and ancillary services and the custodian of the public buildings. It is needless to state that all Government Buildings such as the Queens House, Prime Ministers Residence, Parliament, Treasury Building, Hospital Buildings were all constructed and maintained by the Buildings Department during this long period of time.

The role of the Department in Public Sector building construction and maintenance is well defined in the FR and in various Treasury Circulars. FR 787 stipulates that the Buildings Department is the main Construction Department and is responsible for the execution and construction of all works of the Government. The budgetary provision for all Government sector building construction and maintenance was vested in the Buildings Department Votes. Since 1977 the Government relaxed this rule and allowed individual government organisations to obtain the services of the private sector for planning and implementation of building programmes.

From 1969 till 1977, the Buildings Department had an in-house labour force of both skilled and unskilled for the execution of the work. With the introduction of the open economy policy in 1977 by then Government, private sector participation in both consultancy and construction phases of the implementation procedure came in to effect. The direct labour method of execution had been brought down to minimum. By 1984 the Budgetary provisions for Building construction and Maintenance were taken away from the Department and provide them in the Votes of the respective Ministries and Government Departments.

From 1984 to 1989

After the reallocation of the budgetary provisions for Government Building construction and maintenance to the respective government agencies, part of the Department works were entrusted to private consultants direct by the government agencies and BD was made government representative in some such cases. But some government agencies continued to get the works attended directly by the BD.

From 1989 to date

With the introduction of the 13th amendment to the Constitution, the construction and maintenance of Buildings belonging to the Provincial Government were vested with the respective Provincial Councils. This has resulted in drastic reduction of the workload of the Department and hence reduction in the staff as well. This led to a major structural change in the Department. District and Superintendent Engineers officers were amalgamated and reorganised as Chief Engineers, officers. 27 District Engineers and 9 Superintendent Engineers in the Sub Offices were reduced to 07 Chief Engineers island wide.

However, the Buildings Department continues to undertake Central Government Building construction and maintenance in an adhoc manner as requested by the Government agencies. The present personnel resources is 620 comprising 69 Engineers, 10 Architects, 85 Technical Officers, 52 Draughts Persons and other supporting staff. The Annual Turnover is around Rs. 1.0 billion.

Present Status

The Buildings Department had developed institutional capabilities in the field of Building and infrastructure construction and maintenance through its performance for more than a century and possesses the capacity. It possess a team of multidisciplinary professionals capable of planning, designing, construction and maintaining of Buildings, sewerage and water supply schemes, recreation facilities such as swimming pools, gymnasiums and services like air conditioning systems, piped gas systems.