Financial Times

Mind your own business

 

A top notch government official who was forced to quit over irregularities is learnt to have initiated a discussion between the country’s chief executive and two banking heads over an oil-related issue. Is he back as an ‘unofficial’ advisor despite legal restrictions?

‘Shut up’
There is a general feeling in the country that the government is using the fight between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil rebels as an excuse to beat down criticism on any issue, including the handling of the economic crisis. Recently, a senior executive who made some suggestions on the economic crisis was reprimanded by an influential government politician for being ‘unpatriotic’.

Arrogance
A mega group in the news over a financial scam may need to get its act together on how to handle media inquiries. A ‘bossy’ secretary of the boss, with an ‘arrogant’ attitude used words like ‘rubbish’ when responding to a media inquiry about the crisis. At a time when depositors are clamouring for their money and the image of the company has sunk, the bigwigs need to be more ‘public-friendly’ and ‘media-savvy’.

Dummy run
A powerful investor said recently he was not selling his stock anymore, triggering a sharp rise in the particular stock price.
Now comes the news that he is in fact selling and may have sold a ‘dummy’ to push the price up!

Down but not out
The group in the dumps seems to still have a lot of money with a massive advertising budget to revive its ‘nice’ and ‘protection for all’ image. The question being asked is shouldn’t some of that money go to pay hapless depositors?


 
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