Members of the staff trade union at LTL Holdings said that politically motivated groups and rival interests are orchestrating a coordinated campaign to destabilise the state-linked engineering firm, dismissing recent allegations against the company as baseless.
Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo, Lanka Transformers Company Limited Staff Trade Union Secretary Kithsiri Egodawatte said politically aligned actors and competing institutions were backing individuals “falsely claiming to represent LTL employees,” adding that none of them had links to the company.
He said the groups were attempting to discredit an institution that had long contributed to the national economy and continued to return strong dividends.
Egodawatte accused the movement behind the “Let’s Save LTL from Robbers” campaign of circulating deliberate misinformation to fracture the organisation.
He said LTL had never resisted audits and fully accepted the Auditor General’s authority, but noted that COPE had acknowledged that current audit rules risked slowing procurement, limiting the firm’s ability to retain skilled staff and exposing it to political interference — all factors that could hurt LTL’s competitiveness against Chinese, Indian and Korean engineering firms.
“Most of our work is governed by commercial contracts. If we are forced to operate strictly under State Enterprise Guidelines without the flexibility needed for global competition, we risk becoming yet another loss-making entity that burdens taxpayers,” he said.
He also alleged that some individuals who had only briefly worked on LTL projects were spreading unfounded claims, while political groups and competitors were seeking to obstruct the company’s progress.
Rejecting suggestions that LTL depended on CEB-related contracts, he said 67% of the firm’s 2024/25 revenue came from overseas markets.
Union member M. Anandavel said multiple court cases filed against the company by detractors had been dismissed or withdrawn due to lack of evidence.
He denied claims by 15 individuals asserting ownership of 75% of LTL, saying employees held shares only in subsidiary firms Teckpro Investments Limited and Peradev Limited, not in the parent company.
Another union member, mechanical engineer Nilupa Madusankha, said LTL remained committed to transparency and professionalism, calling for public support to strengthen the company’s position as a Sri Lankan engineering firm recognised internationally for its technical capabilities.
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