Musical chairs over SLIC’s top post
The state-owned Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation Ltd (SLIC) has become a ‘political’ playground with the former Managing Director refusing to quit.Two days after being asked to leave his position, former MD T. M. R. Bangsa Jayah on Friday morning locked his office room and left to ‘sort things’ out with the ‘minister’, officials said. It was unclear which minister – Ravi Karunanayake or Kabir Hashim (with whom he SLIC falls under) he was referring to.
This came after Keith Bernard was appointed to the post on Wednesday. Official sources said that as of now SLIC has two MDs. “The staff is perplexed as to which instructions to follow. On Friday morning both MDs have instructed certain staff to carry out their instructions. They are confused,” an official said. Mr. Bernard was to take over at SLIC on Wednesday but Mr. Jayah was refusing to leave. “Mr. Jayah (brother-in-law of Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake) doesn’t want to go,” the official said.
Mr. Hashim handles the Public Enterprise Development portfolio which now controls the SLIC against the Finance Ministry earlier.