Special committee to probe SLT irregularities

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) has appointed a 3- member committee headed by retired Appeal Court judge, N. Sunil Rajapaksha to inquire into alleged malpractices and irregularities at the company since 2008, union sources said.

This follows continuing protests from workers over alleged corruption who launched a work to rule and sick note campaign three weeks ago.

The other members of the committee are Sri Jayawardenapura Vice Chancellor Prof. Sampath Amarathunga and veteran banker Mangala Boyagoda. The committee has begun its work.

The committee will investigate and report as to whether there has been any drop in company financial performance since 2011 and if so it will probe contributory factors and responsible officers.

It is mandated to inquire into any malpractice or irregularity or failure in project governance, failure in project governance and management from project planning since 2008 as well as from present out-sourcing and vender financing models.

The committee will also probe into malpractices, irregularities or failures in strategy formulation, operational planning and implementation to face market competition, the sources said. The appointment of the committee and its terms and reference had been approved by the SLT Board of directors at its meeting recently. According the sources, the present administration headed by the CEO has allegedly failed to properly manage the institution and the management has failed to direct the company towards higher levels of growth.

The SLT trade union front has demanded the management to appoint a committee to inquire into reasons behind the setback of the telco giant and make recommendations to resurrect the institution within a month.

It has also demanded to immediately stop heavy investments leading to financial instability of the institution and unproductive operations and halt the present restructuring process in the administrative structure and conduct a prompt investigation into financial frauds in the institution through unsuccessful projects.