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CEB Chairman evades Board meeting held to appoint new GM: CEB Engineers’ Union

22 Jan 2022

The Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has allegedly evaded an emergency Board meeting yesterday (21), held to appoint the new General Manager of the CEB. In a statement, the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) said that the new General Manager appointment was to take place after officially receiving the written approval of the Minister as required under CEB Act and after the Attorney General (AG) had officially communicated his opinion as to how the next GM appointment is to be made. “These two documents cleared all doubts that the "acting" appointment made by CEB Chairman earlier, of a person above 60 years of age (and is currently on bail with two pending court cases) violated the order of the Court of Appeal. However, CEB Chairman M C Ferdinando had purposely evaded the Board meeting and attended a discussion at the treasury on the Yugadanavi deal instead,” the CEBEU said. The Union also opined that it is very clear that the CEB Chairman is purposely disrupting the CEB decision making machinery during this critical power crisis to inconvenience the government and public with a view of showing that buying LNG from New Fortress is the only solution left to the country to keep lights on. Revelations were also made on “secret documents” regarding the Yugadanavi deal which were allegedly signed by the “illegal” General Manager. “CEBEU had also learnt from the General Manager's office that the bogus acting general manager of CEB Dr M N S Pepera had hurriedly signed some crucial documents pertaining to Yugadanavi - New Fortress deal, under the title General Manager. In order to prove to courts later that such action is legitimate, he had also ordered Deputy General Manager Personal to bring posting letters of 50 new Engineering recruits to his signature. He had also hurriedly placed his signature on the Annual Transfer circular of CEB to "legitimise" his appointment. It is learnt that he had done this on the advice of the Chairman to prove later that he was the duly appointed GM,” they stated. The CEBEU also expressed its strongest displeasure at the conduct of present CEB Chairman Mr M M C Ferdinando. According to the Union, Ferdinando is “trying to run CEB as his own property and is doing all these manipulations to achieve his sole ambition in CEB, striking the Yugadanavi New Fortress LNG deal.” They further called for authorities to immediately remove the “disgraceful” chairman from his office  and create a proper working environment before the whole country plunges into darkness.


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