Building Better Governance: The Case of Sri Lanka Telecommunications Industry Reforms

Balasooriya, Asoka

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1551787

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…This made Sri Lanka one of the most competitive markets among developing countries in the Asia–Pacific region. Other measures, such as quality of service, customer relations and internal operational efficiency were reported as having improved significantly alongside privatisation (Balasooriya, 2008; Jayasuriya and Knight-John, 2000). SLT's board was shown to have a majority of highly qualified professionals with extensive international experience.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, concepts were invoked such as elimination of inefficiencies in government investment, costs of connection, pricing, measuring and improving performance (e.g., waiting lists for connection, dealing with faults), profitability and dividend payments. More general shortcomings related to too much bureaucracy, control, and political interference, and inadequacies of vision, service quality, sense of duty to customers and the public, and ability to respond to rapid changes in the telecommunications industry (Balasooriya, 2008;Kularatna and Dhilawala, 1998;Wickramasinghe et al, 2004).…”

Section: Translationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Politics of accounting evidence in privatising telecommunications in Sri Lanka

Gunatilake

Lord

Dixon

2023

AAAJ

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PurposeThis paper illustrates the socio-political nature of accountings, referring to the partial privatisation of the monopoly telecommunications organisation in a lower-middle-income country.Design/methodology/approachActor-network theory and an ANTi-history approach are used to trace circumstances and occurrences. Empirical materials include official documents, print media and retrospective interviews with organisation employees ten years on from the privatisation.FindingsProponents of privatisation used retrospectively constructed historical accounts to problematise the natural monopoly of telecommunications and the government organisation administering it. A restructuring programme followed. Proponents addressed controversies pertaining to the programme thus garnering widespread support for complex and controversial changes. Proponents produced and reproduced accounting artefacts as evidence in these processes of history reconstruction, consequent changes and restoring stability to telecommunications in its reconfigured commercial domain. The proponents used selective, controversial accounting evidence to problematise the government organisation's existence, then to mobilise various actors to reduce and close the controversies previously aroused and reinstate stability in a partially privatised telecommunications company. Although no longer having a monopoly this company still dominates. Dissenters did the same but with little success.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings demonstrate the importance of tracing the socio-political process of arriving at the dominant outcome about the past. This assists in making sense of present circumstances and re-imagining the future.Originality/valueThe study demonstrates that, during controversial circumstances, taken-for-granted history, as well as what is thought to have not existed in the past, support the dominant network in gaining advantage over their opponents and black-boxing their perspectives of how things should be.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Translationmentioning

confidence: 99%