Disunity afflicts CAT Telecom
Some former CAT Telecom Plc board directors have tried hard to be reappointed to their posts, despite heavy criticism of the board's failure to protect the state agency's interests, said a CAT source.
The source added that at least two key ex-directors were trying to return but declined to name names. He said the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, which will appoint a new board soon, was expected to nominate Permanent Secretary Kraisorn Pornsutee as chairman. All CAT board directors stepped down on June 29, following the resignation of chairman Wisudhi Srisuphan on June 21. While Wisudhi did not explain his reasons for leaving, he was reportedly uneasy about disunity among the board members. The board had been criticised by the CAT's labour union for its poor performance. Late last month, the union requested the Office of the Auditor-General investigate the board, charging it had caused the state agency to lose business opportunities. The union also accused the board of missing several business targets, including the delay of CAT's official launch of its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1-x cellular service in 51 provinces from last month as originally scheduled to next year. In May, a source on the CAT board said it had even begun courting foreign firms to market the service in 51 provinces, a change from the original plan for CAT to perform this task itself. On Monday, the CAT public-relations unit sent out a press release refuting the union's criticism of the board, saying the board had strong intentions of protecting the state agency's interests. CAT has its own CDMA 2000 1-x network in 51 provinces, while its joint venture, Hutchison-CAT, operates a separate similar network in 25 provinces. Hutchison-CAT is a joint venture between CAT and Hong Kong's telecom giant, Hutchison Telecommunications, whose BFKT subsidiary has leased the CDMA network to Hutchison-CAT. CAT has sought collaboration between the two CDMA networks to enable them to offer countrywide service, but it has yet to reach agreement with the joint venture. The delay in securing the deal means CAT has been unable to work out its real assets and revenues for listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in the previous quarter.
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