With two top guns of John Keells Holdings (JKH) agreeing to join a seminar titled ‘Building integrity and transparency in business relationships’ scheduled for September 3 in Colombo, the corporate sector expects the focal point to be the landmark Supreme Court ruling on privatization of the Lanka Marine Services (LMS) and the impending judgment on the privatization of the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation.

Ronnie Peiris, Group Financial Director of JKH and Deva Rodrigo, an independent director of the blue chip, have been listed as panelists at the seminar organized by Transparency International Sri Lanka at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel.

Rodrigo, as a senior partner of PricewaterCooper, had been a member of the steering committee which picked PwC as consultants to the government and played a contentious role in the LMS privatization. He joined the JKH board in July 2006.

An executive of a fully foreign owned BOI enterprise told The Sunday Island that he would gladly pay Rs. 7,500 to listen to the public comments of these business leaders on the controversial privatization issues.

Ms Anushya Coomaraswamy, formerly of the JKH board is also on the panel which includes Arittha Wickramanayake, a corporate lawyer and one-time CEO of the SEC. Coomaraswamy was with JKH at the time of the LMS privatization.

The key note speaker will be Jermyn Brooks, Director of Global Private Sector Programmes who had a career with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He had been elected senior partner of Price Waterhouse Europe and worldwide Chairman of the firm in 1997.

Both JKH and the government have been silent on the Supreme Court ruling. The forthcoming seminar will focus on recent International Conventions and Standards, global, regional and Sri Lankan experiences and best practices in corporate governance, TI (Transparency International) business principles for countering bribery.

The Transparency International has arranged the seminar in partnership with the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID). SLID members have been invited to join the seminar at a special concessionary rate of Rs 6,000.

Vasudeva Nanayakkara who successfully moved the SC against the LMS deal yesterday told The Sunday Island that the organizers should have invited government representatives. ``All of us would be interested to know how some of these panelists intended to tackle waste, corruption and irregularities,’’ the former MP said.