SriLankan Airlines Commission: Hotel charges paid to accommodate 100 individuals

During the proceedings of SriLankan Airlines Commission, it has appeared on an e-mail sent by a former CEO Kapila Chadrasena that a hotel in Dubai had been booked by SriLankan Airlines for 100 individuals and among those individuals there was former Sri Lankan Ambassador to the United States, Jailiya Wickramasuriya and his family.

Leading the evidence Senior State Counsel Chathura Gunathilake yesterday informed the PCoI into irregularities at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka that it has appeared on the e-mail the hotel charges were paid by SriLankan Airlines to accommodate these 100 individuals.

Earlier it was revealed to the Commission that Wickramasuriya had directly ordered a chartered flight in April 2013 from SriLankan Airlines to fly from Washington to Mattala via Dubai and billed it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

SriLankan Airlines Financial Compliances Manager Kasun Rathnayake informed the Commission the charter flight which booked by Wickramasuriya owes Rs. 7.8 million to the Airlines and it was booked without the Foreign Ministry’s approval.

The witness notified to the Commission when SriLankan had tried to recover this amount from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Ministry officials informed the airlines that Wickramasuriya has booked the flight with the assistance of a SriLankan official and asked the airlines to conduct an internal audit to recover the amount. (Yoshitha Perera)