I was not contacted over charges against Kshenuka: Kunanayakam

Despite being a key person who brought the ‘Genevagate’ controversy before the public, former diplomat Tamara Kunanayakam says no testimony was obtained from her and neither was she contacted by the investigator who recently concluded the probe on the contentious audit report relating to the issue.

Kunanayakam speaking to Daily Mirror said she was much surprised by the fact that no statement was obtained from her, despite her being the official who requested an audit on the refurbishment of the official residence of Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to Geneva.

She also explained that when she met the then president, Mahinda Rajapaksa on the occasion of her visit to Sri Lanka at the behest of the then foreign minister to interact with the Latin American Ambassadors to Sri Lanka who were attending the National Day celebrations, she had orally requested the president to conduct an independent audit into financial irregularities and security lapses at the Permanent Mission.

Kunanayakam said she could not expect an unbiased probe given that Senevirathne was serving at the time as the Additional Secretary of the MFA -- and it was public knowledge that the Ministry was being run by the former Monitoring MP of External Affairs, Sajin Vass Gunawardena -- a close associate of Senevirathne.

Although her request for an independent audit was described as a violation of stipulated procedure, Kunanayakam said another reason for her directly approaching the then president on the matter was because it concerned security, which came under the purview of the president.

She noted that by then she had already received several threats from the LTTE while serving in Cuba as Ambassador, due to her having prevented the establishment of an LTTE network in Latin America and during her tenure as Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to Geneva. She had been informed by the security officers that they had observed suspicious movements - a fact that had been confirmed by the Swiss Police. She had also received an anonymous threatening letter from Canada during that time.

"So under these circumstances was it wrong for me to have to have spoken to the former president about my concerns and to have requested an independent audit?" she asked, adding that the manner in which the latest inquiry has been conducted (without obtaining her testimony and giving a one-sided account) only confirmed the fact that she was right in calling for an independent audit.

The former diplomat went on to state that various influential members of the present government, who, while they were in the Opposition, accused the Rajapaksa regime of trying to cover up the Genevagate controversy were now attacking her for having taken the right course of action, even going to the extent of falsely accusing her of having helped the Tigers.

"From the beginning, there has been an attempt to divert attention away from the Audit Report and from the real issues posed by that report. For instance, why was there no inquiry on the Company, despite the recommendation by the Mission? Why did the Ministry choose a company that is 400 km away from Geneva, when there are plenty of construction companies in Geneva? Why did the Company not submit a proper quotation? Why was a Company, which at the time was known for credit, insurance, and real estate, rather than for construction, selected?" she asked, while also noting that, although the Audit report which was released in 2012 recommended that immediate attention be given to the security situation, no action had been taken by the MFA on the matter.

"This and the new report of the MFA investigator shows that the Foreign Ministry is not interested in finding out the truth or in taking action on the Audit report," she said.
 

Meanwhile, responding to the comments made by Kunanayakam, MFA Spokesperson Mahishini Colonne told Daily Mirror that the officer charged with the investigation had only contacted those whose comments were necessary to obtain the facts that he had been instructed to find. "He would not have contacted her because of the nature of what he had been requested to investigate. He was asked to inquire into the allegations levelled against Senevirathne in the audit report and, accordingly, he had contacted the officials who performed the audit, and recorded necessary statements from them," she said. Colonne further went on to note that, if a management audit was required, there were certain regulations that had to be adhered to, and that the course of action followed by Kunanayakam was in violation of protocol. "If her concern was with regard to security, and if that was why she directly approached the president instead of dealing with the matter internally through the MFA, she should have called for a team of intelligence officials - not a team to perform an audit. As I have mentioned before, the audit which should have been performed by officials of the Auditor General's Department was instead performed by a four member team from the Finance Ministry which is once again an anomaly," she said.

(Lakna Paranamanna)