How Greg Young (SLT CEO) fools Sri Lanka

by A Special Correspondent

(January 05, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Greg Young, who is a Australian was appointed to SLT CEO position in December 2008. Prior to SLT appointment he was employed just over time period of one year for a USA based company. Before the employment of the USA Company he was employed at Tata Teleservices in India as the CTO (Chief Technology Officer). Prior to his appointment in 2008 the SLT revenue the annual revenue was Rs. 36 Billion and the Net Profit was over Rs. 8 Billion. During his first year of operation in 2009 the SLT revenue was down to Rs. 34 billion ( 7% drop) and the Net Profit was to approximately Rs. 2 Billion. This is a 81% drop compared to the previous year.

Although anyone can blame the country’s economic situation for the drop of revenue, the drastic net profit loss cannot be blame to the country’s economy; it is due to the mis-management and the in efficiency of the CEO. It is also very evident that the senior administration and management team at SLT is not very happy with his lack of ability, lack of professionalism and lack of knowledge required for a high calibre professional position and head the no. 1 corporate company in Sri Lanka. When a CEO gets too involved in down the line operation matters which generally CEO should oversee and not go and do the junior level managers job, one can suspect his level of thinking the motives that can happened of certain action by this individual.

Greg Young’s employment and actions while he was at Tata Tele-services in India can be taken as the prime example. Although he was the CTO, he was mainly getting involved in procurement which is clearly not a part of and not the responsibility of the Chief Technology Officer. He manipulated the management of Tata and got all senior officers who opposed or did not carry out his instructions. It was very clear and also Tata employees would testify that he is a clear “Racist”, who would only deal with foreigners and not with the India locals. Due to this reason many Indian senior local officer who had served the company for a long time did leave during his period. The project that is being claimed a good project was the CDMA introduction by Tata. The Indian telecom industry very well know what happened in this project and Greg’s action during this project. He only entertained ZTE products.

“A leopard will never change its spots” is the famous saying. In Sri Lanka Greg Young adopted the same strategy. He has sidelined Chief Officer and senior officers at SLT, and has taken indirect charge of evaluation and procurement, not only at SLT but also at Mobitel . The best example the most reason project the STAGE-6 expansion of the Mobile network. The project was over USD 60 million dollars. Even though he loudly mentions to all that he made a saving by providing network connections by SLT for better synergy, by doing this he got the authority to evaluate and completely manipulate the procurement procedure according to his wishes. Surprise!, surprise!! This large tender was also awarded to ZTE. This time to divert the attention a small component of about 5% of the total value was awarded to Huawie Technologies. Greg Young’s appointment was never a Group CEO position. It is surprising why the SLT Management and the current Chairman who has a reputation as gentleman and a straigt man is allowing a person who is not suitable to manage SLT, to manage and dictating terms to Group companies such reputation like Mobitel, which is clearly outside his appointment contract.

After fooling the management and Board of Director at SLT, he further went and tried to claim the most reason achievement by SLT – the Fiber connection to North and East was done by him. Anybody and even a student, would understand project of this nature will take minimum of couple of years from planning to implementation stage. The sad part is the people who worked day and night and share their knowledge for the betterment of motherland at SLT was completely ignored and sidelined by this manipulating dictator to save guard his job contract which is already expired in December 2010. We cannot understand why even after his contract is expired he still work in the same capacity? Or Is he still working in the same capacity under the instruction of the foreign partners of SLT with the assurance of a job extended to him by the foreign partner of SLT in their company.

The Greg Young’s latest episode that is in the pipeline is to appoint new Advertising agency Leo Burnett for entire SLT Group. The recent past he was appeared in many functions hosted by management of the Leo Burnett which includes a foreigner, who is a friend of Greg Young. He has already made his plans according to his wishes to manipulate the selection and procurement procedures at SLT.

Further, he has promised one or two international agencies as back up selections.
A report of the true performance of Greg Young has been handed over by the former Chairperson of SLT to the management of SLT and the Finance Ministry before she left the post middle of last year.

The question is Will the management of SLT, the relevant ministry and Finance Ministry is going to extend his contract to create grounds to earn millions of dollars commission, and to enjoy his paid holiday in Sri Lanka to do Water Rafting and Bird Watching with a salary well over Rs. 5 million per month with paid accommodation, transportation, travelling.