Three attempts on life of corruption prober who was finally stabbed dead

(Excerpted from the autobiography of Lalith de Mel)

“I had never met her when Ronnie Pieris sent a message saying that she would like to meet me on my next visit to Sri Lanka. I met her at Temple Trees on a Sunday afternoon. I got her broad, charming smile and I thought that was a good start. I wondered at the time whether this charming and good-looking women had any brains to go with her looks. In the two hours that followed I got the answer. She certainly did.

At the end of a long discussion, she came straight to the point. She said: ‘I would like to congratulate you. I have heard about your achievements. When you retire, I hope you will come and help my Government.’ So as to keep the ball in play, without making a commitment, I mumbled in a vague sort of way that I would be happy to do so.

We had talked for two hours, and she did most of the talking. Being economical with words was not her forte. I was amazed at her grasp of the key strategic issues and how well she articulated them. I was also surprised at her sound grasp of the economics of growth.

In her model for growth, infrastructure was important and one of her major concerns was that infrastructure projects were moving slowly and this was impacting the prospects for long-term growth. She wanted my help to address this issue. She said: ‘Before you go back, meet the Secretary to the Treasury. I have asked him to tell you about the current and planned infrastructure projects and the current problems on implementation.’

I left with a promise that I would get in touch when I had retired.

A few weeks later I got a message from her Secretary saying she wanted to meet me as soon as possible. I was flying to Singapore the next week and I stopped off on the way. She reminded me of her previous discussion with me about the general importance of developing infrastructure and the key importance of telecommunication infrastructure. She said she was not convinced that we could do this by ourselves, and had entered into a joint venture with NTT of Japan. She was very agitated that this was all falling apart. That was my first glimpse of the angry CBK.

She said that the Japanese were having disagreements with the Government, that the Chairman was not getting on with the Minister and that the trade unions were not getting on with anyone.

She wanted me to take on the role of Chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom immediately. I explained that I would need to think about it and consult my wife, and then if I wanted to, I would need permission from the Board of Reckitt & Colman PLC as I was still working for them. I promised to revert in a week. When I returned to London, one evening fortified with a few whiskies to stimulate the brain, I had a long think about it.

I had a vague ambition to spend time in Sri Lanka post-retirement and to use my knowledge and experience to do something useful for my country. Taking on a major public sector role had not even been considered. However I had to make a quick decision. The Government and CBK had a major problem. Should I do it or provide some excuse and run away from it? In the end I said to myself that if I was really interested in helping my country, I should not run away from this challenge. So I got approval from my Board to spend two weeks a month in Sri Lanka and then told CBK that I would take on the assignment.

That was the start of working for seven years with CBK and the Government of Sri Lanka. I performed many roles during this period and they will be described later. The most important one had no title and was performed until her term expired. That was becoming a team with Dr. P.B. Jayasundera and Mano Tittawella and being the think-tank and the key support team for CBK.

Her final election victory was defeating Ranil Wickremesinghe’s UNP Government. In the run-up to this election she asked me to come on the National List and when she won to be her Minister of Finance. Without any hesitation I thanked and declined. Dr. P.B. Jayasundera and Mano Tittawella were also present and they suggested I think about it.

I said that I was sure that I would be unhappy and uncomfortable working in the atmosphere that prevailed in Parliament and did not wish to take on the role. I said I would be much more useful and helpful to her by being a part of her backroom team and taking on any assignments as a part of that role. That is what I did until the end of her term. It was a fascinating period of my life. I got a great insight into the political scene in the country.

Working closely with CBK, the President of the country, was also a fascinating experience. We agreed and disagreed at times, and were occasionally put in the dark hole as PB, Mano and I called it. If you seriously annoyed her, she did not contact you for some time, but then it was back to smiles.

My basic input was developing processes for better governance of the country. Concepts were debated and as she was very intelligent she understood what we were pursuing and always made a major contribution and often brought in a dimension we had not appreciated.

A new idea cannot be enforced by Presidential edict alone. It had to be channeled through Cabinet papers and Cabinet decisions so as to ensure compliance. She was excellent at handling this process.

At the end of her tenure, she kindly bestowed the Deshamanya title upon me. In the, citation it was in recognition of the honour to Sri Lanka by getting on the Main Board of a top 100 company in the UK and in recognition of my contribution in various roles in Sri Lanka. We remain good friends.

When I accepted the role of Chairman of SLT, I had decided that I would work free and accept no salary when working for the Government and this I did in respect of all my Government appointments. I also paid for my air fare from London and never made a single claim for entertainment or any other expenses. When I was working for the Government and afterwards, there has never been any allegation of fraud or abuse of office.

Saving Sri Lanka Telecom from bankruptcy

When I arrived from the UK, I went immediately to SLT to meet the Managing Director. There was a short-lived pleasant surprise. The Japanese Managing Director was Hide Kamitsuma, who had been with me at Harvard Business School 10 years previously. I knew him reasonably well at Harvard. I soon discovered that he was a great friend of Hemasiri Fernando, who had been removed as Chairman, creating the vacancy to which I was appointed.

Kamitsuma told me that Hemasiri had filed a Fundamental Rights case and the relief he was seeking was not compensation but reinstatement as Chairman. I asked him whether he thought that was a good idea. The Japanese turn a nice shade of pink when they drink and he turned the same colour after my question, smiled, shrugged his shoulders and mumbled something vague on the lines of it would be okay if he came back. Aha! Kamitsuma was likely to be more foe than friend.

That afternoon there was an event to welcome the new Chairman. There was a frisson of tension in the air. Kamitsuma’s speech was not overly welcoming. The Trade Union Leader’s speech was more threatening than welcoming. The rest of the Board and Senior Managers were present but I did not know any one of them. None of them came up and said, ‘Sir don’t worry we are all with you.’ Perhaps Hemasiri Fernando was well-liked and many like Kamitsuma may have been sad that he was removed.

I was not fazed by this scenario and did not for a moment think I should take the next plane back to London. The task as I saw it was the simple one of successfully running yet another business, and I had run many, many businesses in the past.

Understanding the business and the people

After a few days I had a game plan. The first priority was to establish a rapport with the trade unions, the next was to get to know and establish a friendly relationship with the senior management team, and then to get a clear understanding of the finances of SLT. It all worked out well. The unions were pleased that I met them immediately as I took over, and that I treated them with respect and were prepared to listen to them.

In the course of time I played the old trick when they brought up a problem. I would ask them to think about it for four weeks and work out a solution and I promised to do the same and said that we would discuss it when we met in four weeks. More often than not, the problem disappeared. I had no strikes, no unrest and good support from the unions, but nothing comes free and there was a price to pay. They claimed that senior managers were corrupt and had made money and wanted them removed and they said they would help to provide the evidence.

I knew that that the `komis kakkas,’ as the President called them, were fluttering around. One even offered me a bribe. I knew it was not sensible to dive into exploring the fraud that had taken place before I arrived, and the wise and prudent course was to promise no more corruption in future. The unions would not go along and insisted I take action against those had made money. The choice was trade union unrest or enquiry and action on bribery. I had to go down the bribery route. It led to dire consequences.

Getting the business on an even keel

There was a lot of fat in debtors; I squeezed a lot of cash from there. They had not leveraged creditors and got breathing space by negotiating delayed payments. Cash had been going out for capital projects faster than it came in. I pruned, phased and delayed the capital projects. Very soon we moved away from the brink of bankruptcy. In a year we had a good P&L, the balance sheet looked much better, hurdle rates for capital project and cash payback requirements were firmly established and the Japanese technical staff were given a crash course on cash flows and cash management.

The Japanese NTT staff working for SIT were all excellent technical people, all very competent and doing a grand job, but they were babes in the wood when it came to finance. My guess was that they had performed senior jobs in Japan in one of the main regional divisions of NTT, and their task had been to provide excellent service. The management of cash, providing funds for capital projects and pricing, etc., was a head office function and did not become one of their skills.

Things were going so well at SIT and it was possible to entertain a thought of playing golf early evenings. Two things destroyed this nice idea. I had to take over as Chairman of the Board of Investment and the trade unions were insistent about removing those who had made money.

Pursuing corruption

This was always an exercise fraught with danger. But danger perhaps did not press too heavily on the mind, as due to the LTTE one had got used to living with danger and ignoring it. SLT was a top LTTE target. There was an Army platoon stationed at SLT and it also had its own armed security staff. But if a suicide lorry got through and stormed the main gate, my office was 25 yards from it.

The Head of Administration, Sriyantha Fernando, was tasked with probing past corruption. It is a long Agatha Christie detective story about finding those guilty of corruption. Instead of narrating it, let me just say that evidence was found and the Head of Procurement, a very senior manager, was interdicted. Then the fun and games started. A grenade was thrown at the portico of Sriyantha’s assistant’s house and a car damaged with no injury to people. A few weeks later a grenade was thrown at the porch of Sriyantha’s house in Moratuwa. Again a car was damaged with no injury to anyone.

A month later as Sriyantha was coming home, at the top of the lane someone fired a 9mm pistol at the front of the vehicle. The driver kept on driving and the hitman then fired at the side and finally at the rear of the vehicle. The driver took one shot on his leg and Sriyantha took nine shots on his body, but fortunately none hit his head or chest. The driver bravely turned the vehicle round and drove to Kalubowila Hospital. He survived.

Carrying a 9mm repeater pistol

The President was informed and Minister Mangala Samaraweera was informed and he called the IGP, etc. The Head of Security at SLT was a General and a retired head of the Army. He and a DIG Police came to my office the next day and solemnly announced that I would be the next target as I had initiated this whole process of investigating corruption. He put a 9mm 20 shot repeater pistol on my desk (which became my constant companion for the next five or six years) and said, ‘You must always carry this’.

They both said, ‘You must also learn to shoot well.’ I was familiar with shotguns and rifles in the shooting fishing days of my youth but not with automatic pistols. It was then to the Army shooting range for the next 10 days until my instructor thought I could shoot well.

I was then exposed to an amazing piece of strategic thinking by the Police who had by then been instructed by the President and Secretary Defence to give me full protection. The top Police officer responsible for protecting me met me, and this is what he said: ‘Sir, we can’t prevent you being killed if they (whoever they are) want to kill you. We have armed guards at your residence and nobody can come and kill you at your home.

‘The risk we can do nothing about is when you are traveling by car. Even if we have an armed officer sitting in front, a man on a motorcycle can come up alongside and shoot you. But you can protect yourself. Tomorrow we have asked all the Directors and Senior Managers to come to the Army range office to discuss security.

We will then tell them to come and watch the Chairman shoot and we will also importantly tell the drivers to come and see the Chairman shooting. Sir, you must shoot very well. The drivers will then talk about it at SIT and the whole of SIT will know that you shoot well. The underworld will also come to know as they will be monitoring your movements and they will know that you carry a pistol.

‘What we will do with this exercise is convey to any potential hit-man that there is a 50-50 chance that he will get killed if he attempts to kill you. They do not generally pursue a hit if there is a risk of getting killed. That man does not know you and has no personal dislike of you. It is just another job. He wants to do it and then go on to other jobs. He does not want to get killed.’

I was asked to carry the gun everywhere. To keep it by my side in the car and if any motorcycle came alongside, to raise the gun and make it visible. They said they may test the risk. Two innocent motorcyclists nearly got themselves killed by running into traffic on the other side when they saw me pointing a gun at them. The hard part was to condition my mind to shoot without hesitation and instantly if a motorbike came alongside and the man on the pillion took a gun out. I needed to learn to concentrate.

Every time I got in the car, I said a few times to myself. `If a man with a pistol comes alongside, shoot.’ When I was sure I could do that, the threat of getting killed receded in my mind like not worrying about the LTTE suicide bomber ramming the SLT gates. No one with a gun came alongside, and I could not test my resolve to shoot without any hesitation. Shame!

Postscript

Sriyantha Fernando recovered and was kept in a safe house in Colombo for some time until he was fit to travel. Then NTT gave him a job in Singapore. The Police made no significant progress in finding the man who shot him or those who hired him. The Police said: ‘Keep the gun with you always until we find the culprits.’ Time rolled on and the gun was not always carried. Then Sriyantha came back to Sri Lanka. Within a month he was stabbed and killed at home! It was back to carrying the pistol.