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By Shirajiv Sirimane

The Ceylon Bank Employees' Union (CBEU) Bank of Ceylon Branch has launched a major campaign against the proposed privatisation of the state banks and specially with regard to the proposed sale of the property belonging to the Bank of Ceylon at the GOH (Grand Oriental Hotel) building in Fort.

Secretary of the CBEU Ratnasiri Kalupahana said that there is information that the government has requested the Management and the Board of Directors of the Bank of Ceylon to sell the GOH building at York Street and hand over the money to the government. "We have also received information that PERC officials have already inspected the GOH building."

"The GOH had been the head office of the bank during its halcyon days and today the estimated value of the building which even houses the Grand Oriental Hotel is around Rs. 150 million. But we understand that the Bank authorities and PERC are negotiating to sell this property for around Rs. 500 million."

"There is no financial crisis in the bank and there is no reason to sell the fixed assets such as the GOH to gain cash. We understand that a owner of a competing bank is making efforts to acquire this building to house his bank."

He said that the property which is over one acre had been with the bank since 1955 and nearly 20% of the Bank revenue is being generated from institutions housed at this building. "Sri Lanka's first NRFC account originated from this Metropolitan branch and our Foreign Exchange Bureau, safe deposits and many other departments are at the GOH branch."

Kalupahana said if the GOH property is sold these institutions too would have to be relocated to their Headquarters at Janadhipathi Mawatha.

"But then customers who have been used to this premises would be severely inconvenienced and would close their accounts and join other banks."

He said when the bank wanted to lease out their Cey Bank rest at Nuwara Eliya the Union did not object since it was running at a loss. "Now this has been rented and the bank is getting a rent of nearly Rs. 400, 000 a month."

The Secretary said that they have no major objection if the adjoining GOH hotel is being sold or given on lease since it is running at a loss. "The electricity bill of the GOH hotel last month alone was Rs. 1.4 million." However a senior official of the GOH said that their hotel was not running at a loss.

"When I took over the hotel in 1997 it was running at an annual loss of Rs. 30 million. But in 2000 the hotel earned Rs. 38 million. This year with the ongoing peace process we are aiming at a turnover of around Rs. 100 million. Up to last month we have earned Rs. 80 million," he said.

An official of the Bank of Ceylon Headquarters said that there is no plan to close the York Street bank nor reduce the staff. "We are only studying a proposal to relocate them to the main branch due to operational problems," he said.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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