By Rathindra Kuruwita

The current government believes that all state-owned enterprises (SOE) must be sold, even the ones that make significant profits, President of Telecommunication Workers Union Jagath Gurusinghe says.Addressing the media yesterday, he said that a committee had been appointed to restructure SOEs and it was carrying out its activities in secrecy.

“No one knows what’s going on. There is no transparency. I don’t think that the workers’ concern that the government is up to no good is ill-placed,” he said.

Gurusinghe said they met senior government officials in charge of restructuring.

When unions asked what the mandate of the committee appointed to restructure SOEs is and the cabinet paper on restructuring, these officials refused to answer the questions, he said.The first priority of the government must be to eradicate corruption, he said.

“If there are crooks in the SLT, take action against them. Then we can further develop the institution. The issues faced by the country won’t be solved by selling SLT, or other SOEs. If anything, it will further weaken the economy by preventing the government’s ability to direct the economy,” he said.