Is Sri Lanka Insurence still under Stassen Group?

21 Nov 2009

Stassen group’s corporate website still (as at Nov 20, 2009) claims Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation under their group. The Sri Lankan Parliament's Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) revealed that the privatization process of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation was irregular.
In 2007, a case was filed in the Supreme Court challenging the privatization of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation citing the revelations of this report. On 4th June 2009, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka annulled the sale of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation in 2003. As such Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka PLC was ordered to return its stake in Sri Lanka Insurance to the government treasury.

Stassen Group is owned by Don Harold Stassen Jayawardena alias Harry Jayawardana. Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka, HNB, Aitkan Spense and Lanka Milk Foods are also listed under the group companies section of the Stassen Group’s web site.

The Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation web site states under “About us” as follows;

“Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation which was established in 1962 as a State Owned Corporation was converted to a Limited Liability Company for a brief period of 6 years and was re-instilled in the state sector on the 4th June 2009, further strengthening the Corporation as the strongest and the largest Insurer in the Country. Sri Lanka Insurance is now backed by government protection and service excellence on par with the best in the private sector.”

The government should clarify on this and reveal the public on real situation. How much of shares of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation do Stassen Group holds now? Is Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation is really under the control of the government as new advertising campaign of the company claims or is it still under the control of  Stassen group as their corporate website claims?

If majority of shares of  Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation is no longer belong to Stassen Group, their cooperate website is clearly violating the law and insulting the supreme court by still listing Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation under their group. This can not simply be a mistake because it’s almost six months since Supreme Court’s decision.

Is Don Harold Stassen Jayawardena striving for the next election to reclaim Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation under another puppet political junta?

References:
- http://www.stassengroup.com  (As at Nov 20, 2009)
- http://www.srilankainsurance.com/about.asp

Screen capture Reference (As at Nov 20, 2009):