The Supreme Court this week stressed the need for discipline at Sri Lanka Insurance (SLI) after the April 2003 privatization was reversed and the Corporation was handed back to the government.
During the final determination of the judgment on Friday, the Supreme Court, comprising justices N.G. Amaratunga, K. Sripavan and P.A. Ratnayake, said they didn’t want any unionized disruption of the quality of work at SLI.
The Court also advised the government to set aside part of the profits from SLI to ensure sufficient funds to redeem Milford Holdings in the amount of Rs.6.050 billion once it cashes its treasury bonds including the interest from the bonds. According tothe judgment delivered on 4 June 2009, Milford Holdings, the purchaser of SLI, will be given the purchase price of Rs.6.050 billion in treasury bonds with a maturity period of five years.
Deputy Solicitor General Sanjay Rajaratnam submitted to the Court the names of the new 7-member SLI Board of Directors proposed by the Treasury Secretary Sumith Abeysinghe. It was noted that the Board of Directors were chosen in consultation with the Minister of Finance, President Mahinda Rajapakse, who gave approval to Mr. Abeysinghe’s recommendations.
The Board of Directors are Pradeepa Kariyawasam, Anura Meddegoda, R.A. Jayatissa, Chithral Amaratunga, Nalaka Godahewa, Ravi Abeysuriya and A.P. Lekamge. Mr. Kariyawasam is affiliated with the Chartered Institute of Marketing while Mr. Meddegoda and Mr. Amaratunga have 20 and 40 years of legal experience respectively. Mr. Jayatissa is a senior economic advisor to the Ministry of Finance. Mr. Abeysuriya is a fully qualified chartered accountant. It was stated in Court that the Board of Directors will decide on the Chairmanship and the Managing Director positions themselves but suggested that Mr. Godahewa, the Competent Authority, be made Managing Director.
It was also revealed in Court that the lorry seized and held at the Slave Island police station last week on suspicion of containing documents and files belonging to SLI actually contained documents belonging to Formula World which was formerly owned by SLI. It was stated in Court that the lorry and documents were examined by not only the police but by a team detailed by Mr. Godahewa and was ordered to be released to the owner on Thursday by the Magistrate Court.
The Auditor General consented to auditing the accounts of SLI from the last audited balance to 4 June 2009, the date of the judgment. However, the Court ordered that the accounts be audited from the date of privatization, 11 April 2003, up to the date of the judgment to ascertain the profits made by the company during that period which will be given to the purchaser, Milford Holdings.
The issue of the SLI database was also taken up by the Court. The Deputy Solicitor General said the database was outsourced to a company named Bell Vantage through an agreement between the company and SLI, valid for six months. Justice Amaratunga stated that if SLI requires data from the database, it would require them to pay a third party. He said it was an ‘outright robbery of public funds.’ However, he stated that the Court would not make an order on the database but would leave it up to the new Board of Directors.
Justice Amaratunga added that several allegations have been made against the respondents in the fundamental rights petition but stated that it is up to the relevant authorities to act according to the law within their powers. Last week, the petitioner Vasudeva Nanayakkara issued letters through his legal counsel to the Exchange Controller, the Chairman of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, the OIC of the Criminal Investigation Department, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) to investigate any individuals mentioned in the petition of unlawful activity and to take action within their statutory powers. |
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