Bureaucratic bungling drags SLT into crisis
View(s):Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT), the national telecommunication service provider, is facing another crisis as some of its key divisions are likely to be closed down, with workers moved to other sections, amidst allegations by trade unions that the company was conducting politically influenced countrywide recruitment drive under the guise of restructuring.
Discussions are underway to close down the IT division of the SLT and outsource it to a local company with US interests, officials from the Telecommunication Engineers Union (TEU) told the Business Times (BT).
They accused the SLT top management headed by SLT Chairman P.G. Kumarasinghe Sirisena of being instrumental in planning to close the transport, sales and civil engineering divisions.
They noted that there were around 1500 vehicles in the transport division with the required number of drivers.
In addition a private company will be entrusted with the task of managing the transport division which has become lethargic at present, one official said.
Outsourcing the SLT Transport division while paying wages to existing drivers will incur a loss of Rs. 700 million per month, the SLT TEU official said adding that 489 vehicles are being deployed at the SLT making a payment of Rs. 80,000 monthly. In all these allegations, SLT documents pertaining to these moves were shown to the Business Times. Neither the chairman or senior officials were available for comment
In a startling revelation, he noted that several interviews were held in rural areas to recruit personnel for SLT regional branches violating normal administration procedure of the company as those interviews were conducted at Pradeshiya Sabas, according to documents seen by the BT.