Prime Minister's Office (Sri Lanka) the Parliament. The office of prime minister was formed in 1947 with D. S. Senanayake becoming the first Prime Minister of Ceylon. It consisted of a Secretary (Permanent Secretary) and an Assistant Secretary, who were officers of the Ceylon Civil Service, and a Private Secretary, along with clerical and support staff based at the Senate Building along with the Senate, Cabinet office and the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence. Since 1960 the prime minister's office has been based at Sirimathipaya Mansion on Sir Ernest de Silva Mawatha (formerly Flower Road), Colombo which was the former residence of philanthropist Sir
Dominion of Ceylon and an independent foreign policy as part of the non-aligned movement. In 1948, when Ceylon achieved independence from the United Kingdom, the Governor was replaced with a Governor-General. The Governor-General was responsible not to London, but to the monarch of Ceylon, the local government, and the local parliament. The role was generally ceremonial, however it did come with the 'reserve powers' of the Crown which allowed the Governor General for example to dismiss the Prime Minister (with power such as this, the Governor General had to act as a responsible non political 'referee' of the government, using the national constitution