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Sumathipala questions how Rs. 42 mn jumped to Rs. 800 mn in a month
Former Sri Lanka Telecom Chairman Thilanga Sumathipala has called on Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B.Jayasundara to initiate an inquiry to ascertain as to how an outstanding amount from the 'Sigiri' pre-paid calling card system was not properly reflected in the Telecom accounts mid this year.

Mr. Sumathipala in a letter to Dr. Jayasundara has said the outstanding amount stated as Rs. 42 million at end of August 2004 had suddenly shot up to more than Rs. 800 million as at the end of September.

Mr. Sumathipala has said that when he relinquished office in July 2004 there was no amount outstanding from PCI in respect of the ‘Sigiri Card’ operation and the following months' management report reflects only Rs. 42 million as the amount outstanding.

The former Chairman defending the move to introduce the 'Sigiri Card' system has said that at the time the system was introduced there were several parties in the UK which used the Voice Over Internet Protocol technology to bypass SLT's gateway by having their own pre-paid international calling cards.

He said that amongst those that exploited the system on a mass scale were the promoters of the pre-paid cards such as Gnanam, Vanakkam, Everest, Alpha and Thanga.

One of the main reasons why it was essential at that time to identify a strategy to meet the threat posed to SLTs international voice call revenue by the users of VOIP Technology as well as to meet the challenges posed by the liberalization of the International Telephone Market was because SLT was in the process of making its initial public offering of SLT shares in the Colombo Stock Exchange come November 2002.

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