*Golden Key employee denied entry to head office, February salary

Close on the heels of collapse of Golden Key Credit Card Limited, another Ceylinco venture, Ceylinco Building Society (CBS), has moved into severe crisis with investors demanding their money back.

A senior government official yesterday told The Island that the CBS established in 1997 had lured prospective clients by falsely claiming government approval under the National Housing Development Act. Responding to our queries, he said that had successive governments acted swiftly and decisively, this fraud could have been easily thwarted.

Duped members of the CBS had demanded money from the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA), the official said. "We had no option but to turn them away," he said accusing CBS employees of directing their clients to the NHDA falsely claiming transfer of funds to the authority.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity he said that the government would have to take punitive action against the perpetrators of fraudulent transactions.

At the launch of the scheme, CBS offered a range of financial products and loan schemes to meet their housing requirements. Under the supervision of Ceylinco Consolidated, it set up branches in many parts of the country including Jaffna, Vavuniya and Trincomalee.

Wasantha Samarasinghe, President of the Inter-Company Employees Union yesterday accused the bureaucracy of allowing unscrupulous elements to deceive people to the tune of billions of rupees.

The former JVP National List MP told The Island that both depositors and employees of over a dozen Ceylinco ventures were in severe economic difficulties. Responding to our queries, he said that approximately 500 employees of the Golden Key Credit Card Limited hadn’t received their February salaries. He acknowledged that their attempts to force the management to pay February salaries by March 10, too, had failed. Altogether nearly 1,700 Ceylinco employees would face a bleak future, he said. He regretted that the media focus was almost entirely on the depositors. The Golden Key employees hadn’t received their EPF/ETF payments for the past seven months.

Kapila Lankaratne, Vice Chairman of the Golden Key branch of the Inter Company Employees Union told The Island that the CID had directed employees not to enter Golden Key headquarters, No 02, R. A De Mel Mawatha, Colombo 4. Reiterating their support for the ongoing investigation, he said that they lodged a complaint with the Bambalapitiya police as their failure to sign the attendance register could be used against them.

A well informed source said that although ordinary employees were in difficulty, top executives of the company continued to live in luxury. "You know some of them lived a life of royalty but may not be able to continue in the same style," he said.