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| Saturday, 19 June 2004 |
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by Chamikara Weerasinghe The Telecommunication Engineers' Union yesterday warned customers of Sri Lanka Telecom against a possible tariff hike that would reflect in their telephone bills. The president, Telecommunication Engineers' Union (TEU), Tilak de Silva warned that SLT authorities were contemplating this move as a means to resurrect a financially ruined SLT, which is the result of their own actions. He said they had requested a full investigation from Post and Telecommunication Deputy Minister Cegu Izadeen to look into irregularities in the SLT involving introduction of a new billing System in 2003 by its management, which they said was the cause of Telecom's present financial crisis. De Silva was speaking at a press conference yesterday at Hotel Nippon, Colombo. It was organised by the Telecom Union to give a detailed account on the transformation of the SLT from profit making venture to one in financial distress. SLT has lost a revenue of Rs. 7,000 million from its customers as it had been unable to issue telephone bills to its customers from February this year consequent to its new billing system having been introduced in December last year at a cost of Rs.2,000 million, he said. Hence, the SLT has been dependent on bank overdrafts to the tune of Rs.2,300 million in running the Company's day-to-day expenses, he said. He also charged Lalith De Silva, who was the consultant to the New Billing System Project for recommending the project to the SLT Board of Directors. " He did not have any experience whatsoever in handling a Billing Project," he said. " It was even more questionable that Chairman of the Board, Thilanga Sumathipala and his directors accepted it without referring it to a Competent Technical Evaluation Committee." He also pointed out that SLT was paying Rs.200 million yearly to the supplier of the System when such payments are not even heard of when the old billing system was in operation. The Telecom Engineers' Union has requested Post and Telecommunication Ministry to appoint a committee to study the tender procedure of the project and to audit all payments related to the tender. |
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