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Canadian assistance for CEB reforms

by Rashomi Silva

A Canadian delegation has arrived here to assist the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) with the proposed Restructuring and Reform programme, Manager CEB Reforms Office Nihal Wickramasooriya told the Daily News.

"We hope to implement the proposed reforms with the assistance of the delegation and with World Bank and Asian development Bank aid," he said.

The delegation will focus mostly on the disintegration of the CEB and the transition of the CEB into a state-owned company.

The team is studying the CEB structure and the new 'Electricity Reforms Act'. A timeframe to carry out reforms will be worked out shortly," Wickramasooriya said.

The Reforms office also hopes to sign a Memorandum Of Understanding with trade unionists to facilitate cooperation between the workers and authorities to ensure that rights and privileges of workers are safeguarded.

Under the new Act the CEB will be divided into three main components. Accordingly, generation, transmission and distribution will be entrusted to different companies owned by the State. The CEB Reforms Act was introduced to eliminate the monopoly and to allow a free market operation to take place in the power and energy sector. However, the free market operation may not take place in the foreseeable future.

"The state owned companies come under the Companies Act. We believe that will help us to give a better service to consumers. We have LECO as our model institution.

LECO which handles a part of power distribution is a government owned company and it provides a more efficient service to the public," Wickramasooriya said. Parliamentary approval has to be sought before selling shares of the stated owned companies. "That has been clearly mentioned in the Act. However we have no intention of selling of shares at the moment," he added.

Commenting on the workers' job security, Wickramasooriya said that no one will lose jobs from the reforms. However, there is a volunteer retirement scheme - those who do not wish to work under the new administration can volunteer to retire and they will be paid compensation.

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