SLT Chairman reacts promptly to President’s directive
View(s):Heeding to the directive issued last week by President Maithripala Sirisena, his Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) Chairman-brother P.G. Kumarasinghe Sirisena has assured the employees that he will take necessary action against officials involved in corrupt practices.
He has informed that this action against corrupt officials will be taken after receiving the report of the special three member committee headed by retired Appeal Court Judge, N. Sunil Rajapaksha.
This Committee was appointed to inquire into alleged malpractices and irregularities at the company since 2009.
This committee has probed contributory factors and responsible officers for 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 vendor financing models.
The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and the Auditor General’s Department already conducted investigations into complaints made by Telecommunication Engineers’ Union (TEU) of SLT.
These reports have also identified and made recommendations to punish corrupt officials allegedly involved in malpractices, a key office bearer of TEU told the Business Times.
In a circular issued on March 12, the SLT Chairman noted that the special committee has informed him that it will take a couple of months to investigate into the high volume of cases comprising over 160 files.
He assured that SLT board headed by him will be taking immediate action soon after the release of the committee report on or before April 30.
A 10-member expenditure management committee comprising Chief Officers of SLT headed by SLT has been appointed to approve and monitor new SLT projects valued at Rs.25 million or less disbanding an earlier committee, TEU office bearer said.
He noted that some of the Chief Officers in the committee appointed by SLT Chairman had been allegedly involved in corrupt practices.