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Power Blackout Committee Report:Recommendations run counter to President’s policy

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By Dr. Janaka Ratnasiri

The Minister of Power, four days after assuming duties, had to face an island-wide power blackout which commenced around 12.30 pm on the 17th August and lasted up to 7-8 hours. The following day, he appointed a committee, comprising Ministry officials and power experts, to investigate the matter and submit a report within a week.

 

COMMITTEE APPOINTED
BY THE MINISTER

The Committee comprised two administrative officers, including an Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Power, serving as the Chairman, a Retired Professor of Mechanical Engineering, an Engineer who is a Chairman of a Corporation, two Senior Lecturers in Electrical Engineering, one senior official from the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and one senior official from the Ministry of Power responsible for Renewable Energy Development. The Director General of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) was also nominated but did not serve as there was a separate investigation being undertaken by the PUCSL. With two members from the Ministry, including one in the Chair, and another from CEB, the Committee cannot be considered as independent.

The Committee had met on the 18th and submitted an interim Report, to the Minister, on the 24th, which was also tabled at the Cabinet meeting held on the 26th. The Report was also made available at a press briefing held by the Ministry and the contents herein are taken from this Report. According to the Report, the Committee had visited the Kerawalapitiya Grid Substation (GSS) where the initial fault occurred claimed to be due to a human error, Lakvijaya Power Station (LVPS) at Norochcholai, Protection Branch of the CEB and the System Control Center of the CEB at Pelawatta, and had interviewed the staff on duty at these stations with a view to elicit information on the following.

The key reasons for the nationwide power interruption on the 17th August 2020 at 12:30 pm onwards.

Whether the CEB has taken precautionary actions and measures to prevent recurrence of interruptions that had been encountered in the recent past for which recommendations have been extended by similar committees that could have influenced the present incident.

Recommendations for remedial measures that need to be taken by the CEB to prevent recurrence of the same and similar incident.

Whether the CEB has taken the best professional practicing measures in handling the incident and the conditions that led to it employing proper planning, operational and administrative elements and had any constraint encountered CEB’s intended professional actions.

Whether the CEB had encountered similar incidents in the past and how the situation had been then handled.

Whether the CEB could have handled the situation judiciously to minimize the implication and how this could be avoided in the future.

 

PRELIMINARY FINDINGS OF THE
REPORT

The Committee, in its Interim Report ,has given a set of preliminary findings, among which are the following:

Routine maintenance work on the 220 kV isolators of the Bus Coupler Bay had been carried out on the day of the incident by the Electrical Superintendent-In-Charge at Kerawalapitiya GSS, who apparently has been attending routine maintenance work at the Kerawalapitiya GSS for the past five years. The power in the Bus Bar 01 had been turned OFF for the maintenance, while the power of the Bus Bar 02 was ON. The Earth Switch 01 at Bus Bar 01 side had been OFF while the Earth Switch 02 at Bus Bar 02 side had been ON as shown in Fig. 1.2(a) at the time of incident.

Under normal operations the Earth Switch and the relevant isolator are interlocked, so that the isolator cannot be turned ON while the Earth Switch is turned ON. However, during maintenance, this interlock had been bypassed, so that isolator can be turned ON even with the Earth Switch is turned ON. At the end of the maintenance work of the 220 kV Bus Coupler Bay, while the interlock is bypassed, the Isolator on the Bus Bar 02 side had been turned ON as shown in Fig. 1.2(b), creating a 3 Phase to Ground fault.

The key reason for the nationwide power interruption on the 17th August 2020 is due to the 3 Phase to Ground busbar fault due to incorrect operation of the Bus Bar 2 Isolator of the Bus Coupler Bay by the Electrical Superintendent -in-Charge at the Kerawalapitiya Grid Substation busbar at 12:30 Hrs.

Kerawalapitiya Grid substation tripping was due to not following the correct maintenance procedure by the relevant officials including the Electrical Superintendent. The Committee also observed that there was no written maintenance protocol for this maintenance job in-line with the current best practiced maintenance protocols.

The Committee is of the view that due to the Kerawalapitiya Grid substation tripping, the system frequency has increased beyond the current setting of the rate of frequency tripping relay of the Lak Vijaya Power Station (LVPS). As a result, the generator-transformer circuits breakers of all three units of the LVPS which made LVPS unavailable to the grid, subsequently the system failed in cascade.

CEB’s recent failure to avoid a country-wide blackout and the longer duration taken to restore power to Colombo City in particular, indicates significant lapses in implementation of critical measures outlined in the previous Expert Committee Reports.

 

AUTHOR’S COMMENTS ON THIS
PROCEDURE

The cardinal mistake done by the Electrical Superintendent (ES) during the maintenance work was that he had disabled the interlocking system which prevents switching on the 220 kV line to the GSS while it is earthed, which is a protective mechanism incorporated into the system to prevent blunders by maintenance staff as happened. It is certainly not an “Ath Wereddak” as claimed by a senior official of the CEB. As a result, the ES was able to connect the high voltage line to the substation already earthed which created the havoc.

The question which arises is what was the necessity to disable the interlocking system to carry out the routine maintenance? The Report does not seem to have queried the ES on this. If the ES has done such an irresponsible act, deliberately, in any other organization, he would have been interdicted forthwith or at least sent on compulsory leave. But, the CEB Management thought otherwise, possibly for fear of trade union reaction.

The tripping of the 220 kV line at Kerawalapitiya apparently has caused a sudden increase in the system frequency at LVPS, resulting in the three generating units there to trip. A sudden increase in the frequency means that the speed of the generator rotors has increased suddenly. Isn’t there a mechanical device called a governor in the generator which helps in maintaining the rotor speed at a constant value? Is it a characteristic of a coal power plant to allow its rotor speed to vary suddenly in response to a disruption in the line? Was it that this governor did not function properly when this incident took place?

The CEB management should be faulted for not making available to the maintenance personnel proper maintenance manuals. It was alleged that even for the Norochcholai coal plant, the manufacturer never made available to CEB the operation manuals in English. That may be the reason for having Chinese technicians to attend to O&M functions even today. It seems that during the last 6-7 years since commissioning the plant, CEB personnel have not been able to learn the O&M functions from the

Chinese technicians. Though, the CEB staff at Norochcholai are unable to handle the O&M functions of the coal power plant by themselves, Sri Lankan personnel are managing three combined cycle power plants, two at Kelanitissa and one at Kerawalapitiya. This is one more reason why Sri Lanka should not build any more coal power plants.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS OF
THE REPORT

Among the recommendations made by the Committee are the following among others:

The committee strongly recommends a standard compliant, systematic, foolproof, safe procedures and maintenance protocols to be instated in the CEB during operation and maintenance (O&M). The implementation of these procedures will have to be continuously monitored and supervised by adequately qualified, professionally trained, knowledgeable, experienced and skilled personnel. The committee would like to propose a performance evaluating annual appraisal system which will help to improve the above attributes of the CEB staff.

The committee understands that there is no Operations & Maintenance related risk management mechanism in place. Therefore, it is recommended to establish a risk management mechanism in order to determine the proper mix of preventive measures, mitigation levels, shift or retention of risks and consequent level of robustness of Operations & Maintenance protocols that would indicate the positive impact on the overall system

The committee strongly recommends to implement the 2018-2037 CEB Long Term Generation Expansion Plan, as given in the plan, which clearly specifies the correct blend of technologies for the future requirements of the Sri Lankan power system to improve the system stability and reliability.

The committee recommends to review the existing protection strategy for frequency instability.

 

2018-2037 LONG-TERM GENERATION
EXPANSION PLAN

 

The first two recommendations are in order. One would expect that an organization like the CEB has already following proper standard procedures for O&M. But if they are lacking, priority needs to be given for the training of staff adequately. It has been alleged in the media that all foreign training programmes are given to engineering staff while the middle level technical staff who actually carry out the O&M work are given only local training. Perhaps, there is a case here and if it is true, it should be rectified.

Since the Committee has made a strong recommendation that the CEB’s 2018-2037 Long-Term Generation Plan be implemented, it is necessary to examine what this plan is. The CEB prepares biennially a long-term generation expansion (LTGE) plan outlining the least cost options of generation plants that need to be added to the system annually for the next 20 years to meet the forecasted demand. The latest plan is in respect of the period 2020 – 2039 but it is still in the draft form yet to be approved by the PUCSL as required by Sri Lanka Electricity Act No. 31 of 2013.

The CEB 2018-2037 LTGE Plan released in June 2018 provided for adding 2,700 MW of coal power capacity between 2023 and 2035 and 1,500 MW of natural gas capacity between 2019 and 2036, along with several gas turbines and diesel power plants as well as a large number of small renewable energy plants comprising mini-hydro, solar, wind and biomass systems, under Base Case scenario. However, the PUCSL did not approve this plan but recommended an alternative plan incorporating natural gas power plants in place of coal power plants included in the CEB Plan.

The CEB refused to accept this recommendation, particularly with objections raised by its Engineers’ Union (EU), and the dispute between the PUCSL and the CEB kept dragging for over a year, and the matter was finally referred to the President who gave a directive to the PUCSL to approve the CEB Plan, fearing disruption to the power supply in the country after the CEB EU threatened to resort to industrial action if their demand for coal power plants is not acceded to. This is something not expected from a body of professionals and unheard in other countries.

Also, the LTGE Plan is highly flawed. It is supposed to determine which power technology will be the cheapest in 20 years hence based on current prices. With the cost of generation depending on plant capital cost and fuel prices both of which could vary widely within a span of 20 years, it is futile to make forecasts now as to which technology is the cheapest in 20 years hence and to adopt it. Although the CEB 2018-2037 Plan has recommended building 2,700 MW of coal power plants on grounds that coal power is the cheapest option, a report by World Bank Group study on Sri Lanka Energy Infrastructure Sector Assessment Programme (InfraSAP) released in February 2019, says in p. 18 that “coal ceases to be the least cost source of power generation, as cost of power from LNG and NCRE could potentially be lower than US cents 9 / kWh” which is the estimated coal power price.

It is therefore obvious that the 2018-2037 Plan is not a plan approved after considering engineering and economic aspects properly but approved on political grounds. Hence, the Committee’s strong recommendation to implement such a flawed plan is an attempt to take the power sector development in the country along a wrong path. It is not surprising that the Committee has made such a biased recommendation when two senior officials from the Ministry and one from the CEB are in the Committee. In any case, building more coal power plants is not a solution to a possible blackout in the future. This is the second attempt when the Ministry tried to get building of coal power plants inserted into a policy document on the sly. The first attempt was when the Cabinet took a decision on post-Covid activities to be undertaken urgently in view of the “emergency” situation in the country, building a 300 MW coal power plant at Norochcholai was inserted as one activity in the Cabinet decision.

It is also mentioned that the implementation of the CEB 2018-2037 Plan with more coal power plants is recommended to improve the system stability and reliability in the future. The Committee has not justified that the system stability and reliability would be better with coal power plants than with natural gas power plants for the Committee to make such a statement. However, it was shown in this instant that it was the instability of rotor speed of the coal power plants resulting in raising the frequency suddenly that caused the three coal power plants to trip. Hence having more coal power plants will not be of any help to maintain the stability of the system. On the contrary, it will make it worse.

Further, it is noted that with a coal power plant once shut down, it is necessary to wait several days until it cools down before it can be re-started. On the other hand, with a natural gas operated combined cycle power plant, there is no such delay and the plant can be energized within a few hours.

 

RECOMMENDATION VIOLATING THE
PRESIDENT’S POLICY

 

In the President’s policy document, “Vistas of prosperity and splendour”, he says “We also anticipate that hydro and renewable energy together would account for 80% of the overall energy mix by 2030”. The State Minister for Renewable Energy said during his assumption of duties that the Ministry’s target is to use renewable energy resources to generate at least 80% of the total generation of electricity by 2030. The Power Minister has also made a statement to that effect in the Parliament. However, it is not possible to achieve this target if the CEB 2028-2037 Plan is implemented.

The LTGE Plan has worked out the average generation from each plant type annually and the values obtained for 2030 are given in Table 1, extracted from the data given in Annexes 7.4 of 2018-2037 LTGE Plan. It is to be noted that it is not possible to forecast exact values for generation from each category in the future because it depends on many extraneous factors, such as rainfall, cloud cover, wind regime, fuel prices and demand which are not known accurately in advance. Annex 7.4 gives average values after considering several scenarios.

It is seen that according to the CEB’s LTGE Plan for 2018-37, generation from renewable sources could reach only 36% by 2030, which is far below the 80% target given in President’s VPS Policy Document, assuming what is intended by “total energy” appearing in this document is total electricity generation.

Therefore, the Committee’s strong recommendation that the CEB’s 2018-2037 Plan be implemented is a gross violation of the President’s Policy. It is surprising that a learned Committee including several officials in the Ministry, are not aware of the President’s policy. The Power Minster should call for explanations from the Committee Members why they overlooked the President’s Policy when they made their recommendation.



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Independence and its Detractors: The Coming of Age after 77 Years

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by Rajan Philips

Political Coming of Age

Both the observance of Independence Day and its erstwhile detractors would seem to have come of age at last, after 77 years. Tongue in cheek commentators have been harping too much on the irony of a JVP-led government celebrating independence. But the JVP was not the first political organization to question the authenticity of the island’s independence in 1948. That honour goes to the LSSP, rather the BLPI, the LSSP’s more doctrinaire variant at that time and led by a formidable triumvirate of theoreticians – Colvin R de Silva, Leslie Goonewardene and Doric de Souza. They memorably called the 1948 independence “fake independence.” It became a part of the political rhetoric of the Left and the JVP gave it a new life among the younger generations of Sri Lankans.

But over time the ‘fake independence’ characterization faded away and after 1970 when the LSSP was part of the United Front government, Leslie Goonewardene formally acknowledged that the old characterization had not been wholly correct. Sri Lanka, he conceded, was able to exercise complete independence in spite of imperial checks in the areas of defense and external affairs, and constitutional limitations. Sri Lanka was able to do whatever its parliament and government wanted to do – the good, the bad and the ugly – all in equal measures. Finally, in 1972, Sri Lanka was able to discard its dominion status, adopt a whole new autochthonous constitution, and declare itself a republic.

Challenging Times

Now after 77 years of independence and 53 years as a republic, Sri Lanka has come a full circle with a JVP President presiding over independence day celebrations last February 4. The political coming of age, so to speak, after 77 years has come at a challenging time for the country. This year’s ceremonies have been described as modest with more cultural and less militaristic emphases. The once controversial Tamil version of the National Anthem was sung to mark the end of the ceremonies. A week earlier the President had visited Jaffna and by all accounts he endeared himself to the people and was well received by them.

In his Independence Day address, President AKD spoke about the many cleavages that are tearing Sri Lanka: “Not only … the ethnic, religious, and caste divisions, … (but also) the entrenched prejudices that exist between political representatives and the populace, between institutional leaders and their staff, between passengers and public transportation operators, between government employees and the citizens they serve, between educators and students, and so forth.”

Critics will cavil that the JVP itself in its earlier incarnations had contributed to aggravating some of these cleavages. But give the man plenty of credit, we have not had a recent president who could provide such an organic assessment of our sociopolitical problems and sincerely commit himself to addressing them. But the tasks on the President and his government are tall and unrelenting. The still new JVP President and the NPP government have been in office for a little over 77 days – following the November parliamentary election. Yet there are those who seem to insist that the new government should be held responsible for solving all the accumulated problems of 77 years in just 77 days.

For the sake of argument, the NPP itself may have contributed to this notion by its own insistent campaigning that nothing has been done right ever since independence, and that only a new NPP government that will put everything right for Sri Lanka. This premise was incorrect however attractive it may have been for polemical posturing. All that said, there is no question that there are pundits who are holding the current fledgling government to a far more stringent standard of accountability than they have held governments that have come and gone in recent past. With only 77 days on, a balanced accounting of the new government should look at not only what it has done or started doing, but also what it has not been able to do as well as what it has steadfastly refused to do. Let us take the last point first.

This government has distinguished itself from its many predecessors from choosing not to do a number of things. For starters, and this is a unique start for Sri Lankan politics (save for the 1956 SWRD government), there is no family in government. There is no nepotism in government appointments. There is no interference in police matters or in government procurement. There is nothing corrupt about this government, and the main criticism appears to be that the government is not moving fast enough, or it is being selective, or even revengeful, in taking action against past corruption and corrupters.

The Rajapaksa Princely State

Corruption comes in many forms. It is corrupt not only to take bribes but also to insist on entitlements that are inappropriate even if they are interpretively legal. Former presidents are entitled to their pensions and reasonable benefits. Should every one of them be given a rent-free mansion at prime locations in Colombo, with a long retinue of security and staffers, is a legitimate question to ask even if there is self-servingly passed legislation to support such post-presidential prodigality.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi famously terminated the payment of privy purses to the ruling families of India’s erstwhile princely states and passed a constitutional amendment in 1971 to implement it. The courts approved it with the exception of some individual cases involving those who had held ruling powers before independence in 1947. It would seem that in the reckoning of at least one former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the whole island has once been his princely state. Hence, his claim to palatial entitlements in retirement.

President Dissanayake and the government should handle this matter not politically; but let government officials send a formal letter to the former president explaining why it is inappropriate for him to insist on this palatial entitlement but leave the matter of either vacating the property or claiming squatter rights entirely to Mr. Rajapaksa’s discretion. Leave it to him and his family to do the explaining to the people why he thinks he is entitled to this facility whereas every other retiring person has to make ends meet within the pension or EPF. And there is no assurance that people will get their pension or EPF after what he, his brothers and their economic whiz kids had done to the economy.

If at the time of independence, Sri Lanka had the Uncle Nephew Party (UNP), 77 years later there is a Sri Lanka Privy-Purse Party (SLPP). The positive difference is that the UNP was in power in 1948, but in 2025 the SLPP is out of power and the UNP is on life support. If the SLPP thinks it can claw back to power by making a public fight over the retirement mansion of its former president, so be it. And if the SJB thinks its fortunes will swell if it throws its support behind the Rajapaksa mansion-grab, so be it too!

The 1977 Legacies

In looking at what this government has done, has been doing, and has not done or not been able to do what needs to be done, we can invoke the year 1977 as a frame of reference. 1977 is a significant watershed year that marked the displacement of parliamentary democracy with executive presidency, created the so called open economy, and expanded irrigation and agriculture that led to self-sufficiency in rice production but subject to the vagaries of weather.

Year 1977 also saw the start of the riotous deterioration of ethno-communal relations and their rapid descent into open warfare. In foreign policy, the long (1977-1994) UNP government began with a sharp turn to the west, rebuffing India and abandoning non-alignment, but ended with the controversial Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement and the 13th Amendment that came appended to it.

The 1977 watermarks are significant in themselves, but they are doubly significant now because the NPP government has set itself up to be measured by what it may or may not do with the principal legacies of 1977. For instance, the government is committed to restoring parliamentary democracy and reforming the executive presidency. These changes are now expected to be implemented within three years, but there is no indication of how the political relationship between communities will be addressed in a new constitution even though the government should be commended for its sociopolitical approach in envisaging a ‘post-racial’ Sri Lanka. For now, let us give the government kudos for its intentions and time for their implementation.

The government will ultimately succeed or fail by how and what it does about the economy. So far, it has been steady in its start and going by the old wisdom the government must be getting it right inasmuch as it is being criticized by those who fancy themselves to be to the Left of the government and others who know that they are to its Right.

The President has set a target of achieving USD 36 billion from export earnings by 2030. While there is no way out of settling our foreign debt without export expansion, the government should be mindful that the USD 36 billion target needs to be supported by a detailed and feasible plan based on an identified export product mix and importing countries. Otherwise, it will turn out to be another tall talk like what Ranil Wickremesinghe did – promising one million jobs but doing nothing to create even one thousand identifiable jobs.

Within the economy, the rice situation has already become the pinch point. If it is not rice, it is coconuts, and even if they are imported they cannot be distributed immediately, because someone is not making customs official happy enough to do the work that they are paid for. The government seems duly concerned about these problems, but it is still trying to find a way out of the cycles of surpluses and shortages, let alone resolving them.

Notably, the government and especially President AKD are now realizing the huge data gap in the supply and distribution of rice, that some of us have been harping on recently. That is a good start, but there is not too much time for the government to assemble data and make decisions. The PMB, as some of us have argued could and should be used as a regulatory and data mining agency guiding the market rather than as a direct market actor competing with private rice millers. The PMB cannot be a regulator and competitor at the same time.

In foreign policy, the government would do well to use to its advantage the chaos that the new Trump administration is unleashing on the world, by staying below the radar and dealing with reliable partner countries to steer Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange economy to stability and reasonable success. The President has proved himself to be ambidextrous between India and China, and the challenge for the government is to leverage the competing geopolitical interests of the two Asian giants to advance Sri Lanka’s economic interests without being submerged by them.

One obvious challenge facing President AKD is about making clear that the NPP is a lot more than its executive president. People are yet to see the full cabinet in full flow. President AKD is easily one of the better, if not the best, executive presidents the country has had as measured by the attributes of comportment, collegiality, and being consultative. But even he needs to possess and project a team of equals who are similarly capable. One can only wish that the restoration of cabinet government will be achieved and matched by other positive advancements as the government completes one year in office before the 78th independence anniversary.

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Ken Balendra’s impact on John Keells

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Ken Balendra

By Sanjeewa Jayaweera
(first published in Feb. 2022)

Much information is available in the public domain about Desamanya Ken Balendra (KB), the visionary Chairman of John Keells Holdings (JKH) who recently celebrated his 81st birthday. For quite some time, I have wanted to pen a tribute to the great man but hesitated to do so as I felt many others ranging from his close friends from school days to those who worked closely with him, are more qualified to write about him.

However, given his advancing age and health challenges, I felt that it was my duty as a former employee of the John Keells Group of over 25 years to express my admiration and appreciation to a man under whose leadership JKH forged to be the largest conglomerate in the country.

Leader par Excellence and Numbers Savvy

Great leaders are a rare breed, whether in politics, sports or business. Arjuna Ranatunga is acknowledged to have been an inspirational leader. He was not the best batsman in the team. However, he galvanized others to perform to their maximum capability, created an ethos of self-belief and risk-taking and used his instincts to strategise a winning formula and backed potential players. Under his astute leadership, a world cup winning team was assembled. I do not think too many will disagree that KB did the same with JKH over a more extended period and left a solid foundation upon which his successors could take the group to even greater heights. Just as Arjuna is synonymous with Sri Lanka cricket KB will always be synonymous with JKH.

Having joined the JKH Group in 1993 as an Assistant Manager, I was appointed as a director of a subsidiary company only about a year before KB retired in 2000. My day-to-day interactions with him, therefore, were minimal. Still, his influence and leadership style were ever-present in the working environment. My early recollections of him were how he smiled and greeted whomever he met when walking along the corridor. Despite his stature, he seemed friendly.

However, I soon realized that most of my superiors were pretty nervous or even petrified when preparing for meetings with him. As a member of the finance team of the hotel sector, I remember extensively collating figures and information for them before a meeting. They all knew that KB was pretty savvy with figures. In the book “They Call Him Ken”, authored by Savithri Rodrigo (SR), the former Group Finance Director Anushya Coomaraswamy expresses her amazement at KB’s grasp of numbers despite not having formal financial training. She further states, “He expected answers for questions he brings up and stops you peremptorily in the corridor if he wants an answer. So, you had to have the facts and figures at your fingertips. That is the kind of training which keeps you on the ball. If you didn’t have the data he wanted, he was not happy, and he showed it!”

Work Ethic and Super Sense of Humour

The JKH culture was built around the principle “play hard, play smart, play together and have fun.” The Chairman was undoubtedly an embodiment of such a work ethic. Moreover, his sense of humour was legendry amongst those who worked closely with him. Many anecdotes are chronicled in the book referred to in the previous paragraph and Richard Simon’s account of JKH titled “Legacy”.

The one that I enjoy the most is how KB as a board director, had requested David Blackler (DB), the then deputy chairman, to get board approval to buy a new vehicle for the company trading in diamonds to replace the sad-looking Sri Lankan assembled Upali Mazda. KB felt this was necessary to be on equal footing with the wealthy gem merchants who used to turn up in rather expensive cars. However, DB had said that this would not be possible as the board was, in any case, weary of the project. So, the story goes about how KB then proposed that DB, a white Englishman, dress up as KB’s chauffeur as none of the gem merchants had a white chauffeur! KB had felt that this should negate the disadvantage of arriving in a dilapidated car! I am sure the story has undergone a few iterations over the years, but hopefully, the readers will appreciate KB’s humour.

Succession Planning

One of KB’s most profound and far-reaching decisions early into his tenure as Chairman of JKH was appointing Susantha Ratnayake, Ajit Gunewardene and Anushya Coomaraswamy, all in their early thirties, to the Board of John Keells Holdings Plc. It was highly unusual for Sri Lankan companies or, for that matter, anywhere else in the world to appoint people as young as that to the main board of the holding company that was also listed. As SR in her book says, “His perceptive judgment of people has proven to be spot on.”

No doubt in appointing them, he was thinking of succession planning, a crucial but often neglected aspect of leadership. He undoubtedly would have been pleased when Susantha and Ajit took over as Chairman and Deputy Chairman in 2005 and successfully steered the group to even greater performance for nearly 15 years.

During KB’s tenure, senior management was structured into three layers known as “A” team, “B” team, and Team 2020. Although it might sound hierarchical, it was more a case of fitting people to slots where the seniors could mentor them and also give them an indication of their future path in the group as long as they kept performing. Team 2020 comprised talented youngsters he believed would be in senior management of JKH by 2020. Coincidently when I retired in 2018, nearly 80 per cent of the twenty senior-most had been at JKH for more than two decades.

Significant Investments and Initiatives during the decade

The substantial investments and initiatives JKH undertook under KB’s leadership are explained below. They have all stood the test of time and have contributed significantly to the JKH bottom line over an extended period.

The acquisition of the Whittalls Group in 1991 for Rs 300 million was to prove an excellent decision. At the time, however, the investment was considered risky by many in the private sector. The two hotels were in financial difficulties due to the civil war raging from 1984. In addition, Ceylon Cold Stores (CCS) was under government control, and the unions were ruling the roost. Nevertheless, the deal gave JKH ownership of two hotels (291 rooms) in Bentota, Hikkaduwa, and CCS, the manufacturer of Elephant House soft drinks and ice creams owned nine acres of prime land in Colombo. Despite severe challenges, particularly from the unions, the JKH team comprising Sumithra Gunasekera, Raji Goonewardena and Jit Guneratne slowly but surely brought about the necessary changes to CCS to be a highly profitable enterprise and compete on equal footing with Coca Cola on market share. As a result, I believe the initial investment was recovered in less than five years.

In 1994 JKH raised US$ 35 million by issuing Global Depository Receipts (GDR) from overseas investors. It was a first of its kind by a Sri Lankan company, and its success was a feather in the cap of JKH and KB and his team comprising Kailasapillai, the deputy chairman, Ajith and Anushya. The issue of GDR taking place amidst a civil war speaks volumes of KB’s vision and confidence in JKH and, of course, the investors in JKH. The JKH share has been the most sought after by foreign investors, and until recently, nearly 50 per cent of the shareholding was with foreign investors.

In 1995 the JKH Employee Share Option scheme was introduced and launched. I believe we were one of the first to introduce this rewards scheme in Sri Lanka. Once again, it was a brilliant initiative to bring a sense of ownership and loyalty amongst the management staff. Undoubtedly, the scheme’s success in the ensuing years enabled many of us who worked at JKH in that era to build a secure financial safety net for ourselves.

In 1996 JKH invested in the Maldives by acquiring an 80-bedroom hotel. It was our first overseas investment, and I was fortunate to be involved in the acquisition. Our management team comprising of less than 10 quickly transformed a “dead” hotel into a thriving property. When I joined JKH, I realized that one of JKH’s great strengths was its systems and procedures and was thrilled to see how seamlessly they were implanted in the Maldives. Jagath Fernando, the then MD of the Leisure Sector and Jayantissa Kehelpannala, the Head of Sales, Marketing and Operations, provided excellent leadership that contributed to our success. As a result, the investment was recovered in a record quick time of fewer than four years. Given the lucrative returns, JKH quickly added more properties in the Maldives to its portfolio and the Maldives is now a significant contributor to the group.

In 1999 JKH and P&O, a renowned international shipping line, and several others entered into an agreement with GOSL and the SLPA to develop the South Asia Gateway Terminal (SAGT). This was after four years of arduous negotiations! The project was the brainchild of Susantha Ratnayake, the then head of the transport and logistics sector of JKH.

A great story that is part of JKH folklore is how when Lord Sterling, the Chairman of P&O, had said, “Ken, do you know that the issued capital of this company is going to be about a hundred million dollars and we from P&O are putting in twenty-six million dollars. What can you do?” Without batting an eyelid, KB had said, “We’ll match it.” Vivendra Lintotawella, the then Deputy Chairman and Susantha had a shock and thought, ‘Chairman, has gone bonkers.’ However, KB explains in the book ‘Legacy’ that JKH had the money from the GDR issue. That SAGT has been a highly successful investment is to state the obvious.

Retirement from JKH and the Legacy

On December 31, 2000, KB retired from JKH and handed over the baton to Lintotawela. It was the end of an era for us all who had worked with him. During his tenure, JKH had grown to be a highly diversified conglomerate with the highest market capitalization on the Colombo Stock Exchange. In its December 1998 edition, Fortune magazine listed JKH among the top 10 stocks in Asia. However, for most of us, his impact as the first Sri Lankan Chairman of JKH went way beyond just numbers. His skills as a visionary leader, combined with his uncanny ability to select and promote people who can deliver, made many of us perform that extra bit which is the difference between being good and excellent. He made us believe that anything is possible and wanted his team to “think big.” It was a way of life. For many of us, JKH was “the family.”

In her book, Savithri sums it up quite appropriately “What most old hands cannot forget is that Ken was inextricably linked with both the past leadership and pending legacy of John Keells. Some would even venture to say that John Keells is what it is in the present largely because of Ken – an assumption that Ken, with his usual modesty, dismisses lightly.”

In my view, the ethos that he created has resulted in JKH being voted as “the most admired” corporate entity in Sri Lanka for decades. Undoubtedly, those who succeeded him have continued his excellent work and even built on them. I was mighty pleased to read recently that the JKH Annual Report was voted the most transparent. I am not surprised because that is the culture that has existed in the group.

Charming, Charismatic yet Outspoken Statesmen

Despite being a hard taskmaster, as his former boss, David Blackler, says, ” Bala’s personality was a fine blend of charm and charisma, an asset that was a much sought after commodity in a rapidly expanding and diversifying conglomerate.” No doubt a quality that benefited JKH immensely over the years when dealing with politicians, overseas business partners, diplomats and even tricky superiors and subordinates! Given JKH’s significant exposure to the leisure industry, relationships with our overseas business partners during the civil war were crucial.

Romesh David of JKH says in the book, “In the chaotic aftermath of the 1983 riots saw major charter tour operators, many of which were global giants, retain their commitments to Sri Lanka based solely on the assurances given by Ken, driven by the confidence and close personal rapport they had with him. Being articulate, personable, warm, and friendly added to his charm and the building of some strong business relationships in his time.”

The book by SR includes a pictorial representation of a Reuter report titled “Private Sector Needs Guts.” The article, I believe, was published in 1994. It states, ” Mr Balendra, who as the chief executive officer, has guided the fortunes of the 125-year-old company since 1990, is one of the few private-sector bosses unafraid to express strong views on the country’s political, economic and social fabric.” KB had said, ‘The private sector should openly be able to criticize the government, suggest policies. That does not mean we are in politics,’ The report goes on to say, “His outspoken views have probably caused the company trouble. It fell foul of former president Ranasinghe Premadasa two years ago and was the target of a vicious campaign by rivals and state-owned media.”

I doubt my article has done sufficient justice to Mr Balendra. I feel I have just touched the tip of the iceberg. I am sure many will write with greater authority about the Corporate Colossus, who was voted by LMD in 2003 as the most effective business leader in Sri Lanka since the country’s independence in 1948.

I would also like to acknowledge Ms. Savithri Rodrigo, the author of They Call Him Ken, from which I’ve quoted extensively.

The article was initially published in the Sunday Island edition on 27 February 2022 and is being republished because Ken Balendra passed away on February 3, 2025.

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Every ill does not need a pill

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People buying drugs in a pharmacy

Pharmaceutical drugs prescribed by medical specialists – doctors – are taken universally. This brand of medicine named allopathic medicine, also known as biomedicine, conventional/ mainstream /or orthodox medicine, is preferred to our native medicine or Ayurveda, by the majority of city folk. Till recently, ordinary people like me were unaware of the inherent danger in use and overuse of prescribed drugs and for every ill consulted a so called Western doctor.

As children in Kandy we were taken to consult either Dr Anthonisz or Dr Win in their dispensary just past the warren of lawyers’ office dens down a road close to the Dalada Maligawa; followed by Dr Frewin. Independent me consulted a wonderful woman GP and consulted a specialist (very rarely), only if she advised it. Dr Vimala Navaratnam was our family doctor for long. I joined a private medical service a couple of years back paying an annual fee (nominal) but a visit of a doctor and his team costs Rs 5,000/- .

Also like most Sri Lankans at the onset of anything unusual, I would make a bee line to a specialist doctor whose fee now has risen to almost Rs 5,000/-. With tests to be done or without, his prescribed drug list is usually long. Recently going to a specialist I was to take two histamines and another drug. The result of drug taking was much worse than the ill I suffered, which I must say abated.

A GP retired from England knew I was prescribed two drugs for an aching arm: a painkiller and the other to counteract probable resultant stomach imbalance. He laughed and advised me to let my body cure itself, aided by plenty water and mental calmness. It worked. It was then he said: “Every ill does not need a pill”, and added more deaths are caused by taking of unnecessary drugs and of course, overdoses.

Medical drugs can be killers

I quote here info gathered by googling, the input statement being ‘pharmaceutical drugs kill’: “Our prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in the US and Europe. Around half of those who die have taken their drugs correctly; the other half die because of errors, such as too high a dose or use of a drug despite contra-indications.”

“Prescription drugs kill 300% more Americans than illegal drugs; prescription drugs kill one person every 19 minutes; prescription drugs now kill more people than heroin and cocaine combined; prescription drugs are now killing more people than traffic accidents…”

Sadly, most people don’t know that properly prescribed prescription drugs kill people, contrary to what we are made to believe by the Big Pharma and their agents, the so called doctors. “In the USA for example, 100,000 Americans die as a result of drug use each year. This excludes prescription drug abuse, which causes this number to skyrocket even higher. This is more than or equal to the number of people who die from accidents, Alzheimer’s, Influenza and Diabetes.”

The Sri Lankan scene

I googled with searching statement ‘Deaths in Sri Lanka due to pharmaceutical drugs’.

Retrieved two articles. One is from the Sunday Times, July 23, 2023, titled Spotlight on recent incidents of deaths in state health sector. The article with table and statistics starts thus: “The Health Ministry appointed a seven member ‘Expert Committee’ to investigate the recent incidence of drug allergies and their after-effects…..” This article was an interview by Kumudini Hettiarachchi with the NMRA Chief. No need to go any further since now much is known about the allergies and death caused by bad drugs imported.

The second is an article issued by the Directorate of Healthcare Quality and Safety. It details a meeting of health personnel in Colombo to celebrate of World Patient Safety Day, in 2022, with theme ‘Medicine without Harm.’ WHO, in 2019, at its 72nd Assembly declared that annually on September 17, observance would be on promoting all aspects of patient safety.

At the meeting I read about, chief guest was then Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, and keynote speaker Prof Galappatty who addressed the gathering virtually from the UK; her topic: ‘Medication without Harm.’

It is the practice now for most well to do or even economically just managing people to go to specialists, she noted. Quoting an article published in the US, she said that about 44,000 -98,000 people died every year due to medical errors, defined as “adverse events or near-miss events that are preventable with the current state of medical knowledge. Of these approximately 7,000 are due to medication errors, which mean “any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of healthcare professionals, patient or consumer.”

In England she said, medication errors were more prevalent among older people who are on multiple medications. In Sri Lanka about 46% of the population have poor knowledge of medicine and about 8-12% are involved in self-medicating with allopathic medicines. She further noted that awareness creation about pharma medicines shout be a priority. A National Plan on Medication Safety was constituted under her initiative, covering the key domains proposed by WHO, namely systems and practices.

Observation

As said before, even if economically hard pressed for cash, specialist doctors are channeled for all illnesses deemed by the sufferers to be serious, though they often are not. The retired doctor from UK says the GP over there spends much time on a patient and does not prescribe drugs unless deemed absolutely essential. He adds that ‘pill pushing’ should be minimized by local doctors, GPs and specialists alike, and more consideration given to the patient’s purse and investigative tests ordered minimally. Patient education to be promoted.

A British visitor told me some years ago that what he noticed most on his first drive from Katunayake to Colombo was the abundance of pharmacies with drugs stocked almost spilling on the pavement. He also said that once he socialized with the locals, he noticed their almost universal shifting of conversations to illnesses they have, medicines they take. Yes, this seems to be a minor national trait.

My doctor friend is involved in spending much to help poor children in their education and in their food intake. He said let’s start a campaign to encourage people to take less drugs and resort to other methods of healing: mind conditioning, meditation, increased intake of water and of course recognizing the danger of even pharma drugs.

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