Exclusive: BBC’s Londoner Who Applied GoSL’s Interest Free Loan Receives RS 8.5 Million Annual Salary!
By Colombo Telegraph -
The BBC’s London employee who applied for the Sri Lankan government’s RS 1.2 million ten year interest free vehicle loan, has been receiving around Sri Lankan Rupees 8,528,200 as his annual salary the Colombo Telegraph can exclusively reveal today.
‘BBC World service Journalist Chandana Keerthi Bandara
Bandara
The letter issued by the Head of the BBC Sinhala Service Priyath Liyanage confirmed that Chandana Keerthi Bandara‘s annual salary is £41,000/- (Forty one thousand pounds). In the letter dated September 10, 2012 under the subject ‘Interest free loan for senior media workers’ addressed to the Director General, Government Information Department of Sri Lanka, Liyange said; “Mr Bandara is a permanent employee of the BBC World Service. He had been working in our London office as a permanent member of staff since 1995. His annual salary is £41,000/- (Forty one thousand pounds)” (Read the original letter below)
“This is absurd, forget about compromising integrity by applying for this loan or accepting some sort of bribe from a suppressive government, how on earth can anyone in this salary scale apply for this interest free vehicle loan paid by the state banks where the interest is by the Treasury using tax payer money?” an anti corruption activist who prefers to unnamed asked.
“I’m also investigating this whole loan and free laptop saga, but this is the first time I heard a person receiving such a massive salary applying for this loan. I’m fully aware of Sri Lankan journalists’ and editors’ salaries, but none of them receive anything close to this,” the activist further told.
“The issue is larger than media ethics. Sri Lankan journalists receive paltry salaries, usually between RS 10,000 and 40,000. Only few high profile editors receive higher salaries. The highest salary is even less than RS 4.2 million a year,” she added.
BBC documents Priyath Liyanage Chandana Keerthi Bandara Colombo Telegraph
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OMG! What a crook
The level of BBC integrity, sad, ever sad.
Kumi Nesiah - January 2, 2013
10:20 am
This bunch of crooks are destroying BBC goodwill
Peretha Banda - January 2, 2013
10:26 am
What Good will !
Kumi please read following report regarding BBC.
The Thomas Report – an independent assessment of BBC coverage of Palestine/Israel
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/index7b-2.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=3&l2_id=122&Content_ID=1709
Vipula - January 2, 2013
7:33 pm
This man should resign before he will sacked.
Yamuna Akka - January 2, 2013
10:28 am
Comrade Chandana, Why do you play with our blood and tears.. Please come forward and answer this question?????????????????????
Dasanayaka Mudiyansalage Thushara Jayarathna ( Sri Lanka Law collage final Year Student) - January 2, 2013
10:41 am
Media Sting – Colombo-Telegraph’s investigative journalists expose the BBC Sinhala Service journalists’ secretive effort to get a government ‘bribe’ in Sri Lanka. Great!!
VR - January 2, 2013
10:42 am
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have you given all the money you collected from us to Dr Bahu or you pocketed them? As Tamils we have serious doubts now. You are a crock, your mantra to us is we are only people who fights for Tamil rights. What the fuck is it, now I understand, all about money. Shit man shame on you.
Tanga - January 2, 2013
10:50 am
Matta Kundalee Bandara so called socialists DR Bahua party man. Shame shame.
Deepthi Samarasinghe - January 2, 2013
11:01 am
This rotten Bandara and Elmo saga proves us that poor journalists are liable to corruption. Wealthy people are may be more corrupt. In Sri Lanka we says journalists are under-payed not like western journalists, so they are taking bribes. What is this BBC buggers proved to us?
Chandra Yogeswaran - January 2, 2013
12:11 pm
Rajapkshe government has cloned their pupets everywhere.Rajapakshes has more faces than one . Beware of that.They wellaware that everybody likes purks ecxept very few,actualy this is a worse than normal type of bribe.Please investigate on it.
Yasas de silva - January 2, 2013
12:41 pm
This corrupt Bandara saying that he is being exposed because he was ‘campaigning for Tamil rights’ is a hypocritical attempt to cover-up his disreputable behaviour. It’s no different to what Rajapaksa Brothers seems to be saying that us because they won the war against the LTTE they should be allowed to do whatever they fancy with the country and its people and get away with it.
The BBC Sinhala Service re-established by Wasantha Raja in 1990, after it was axed in 1976, was radically different from what it was in its content and form and the quality of its programs; for us who lived under Premdadasa’s brutal regime it was a credible and reliable source of information about what was happening in Sri Lanka itself.
These upstart journalists (Priyath & Banda) who took it over after Wasantha Raja’s departure have dragged it down the drain for financial gain are now shamelessly trying to use ‘Tamil rights’ as shield for their corrupt practices.
Cyril - January 2, 2013
1:41 pm
Chandana Keerthi Bandara is not the only case. There is also a rumour that another Sri Lankan Tamil lady of Indian origin (who was earlier attached to the BBC have now close contacts with MR and his military and had entered foreign countries with some Muslims, probably at intermittent periods to avoid suspicion). She is a member of MR’s political party having crossed over from CWC having contested Provincial elections and lost. One will have to verify whether she received a house in Colombo for the works she had been entrusted for MR. The truth has to be verified carefully. It is time for the BBC to look into all irregularities.
Citizen - January 2, 2013
1:48 pm
BBC should launch a full inquiry into the activities of these laptop / interest free reporters. No wonder they fix the news.
Safa - January 2, 2013
4:21 pm
Only stupid foreigners believe the BBC and its foreign service after “shock and awe” (Iraq War). The funding has been cut left right centre and the worst is yet to come. Only the retired old folk listen to BBC even in the UK while most roadsters prefer the more music less talk channels.To top it even the best selling UK newspapers are given away free to folk on the streets- Media has changed to the web;anytime anywhere.
Wuliangguobinjiu - January 6, 2013
12:20 am
Commenting to a related article one gentleman Mayadunne was giving credits to C K Banadara’s journalistic work. What he has forgotten was that Bandara’s Journalism is ‘The Comfortable Journalism’. He was always very obediently following his employer’s line throughout his tenure in BBC. Never had to take a risk, sacrifice anything personally or worry about losing the job. Being a ‘resourceful’ person he managed to forge ‘special relationships’ with pro LTTE groups, MR and many other influential politicians in Sri Lanka safe guarding his position, not to mention the unusual authority he wields over his manager. In addition he is a very vocal member in his trade union. So with all these safety features and a £ 41 000 BASIC salary it was a good life for any normal person. (But Bandara needed a little more from people of Sri Lanka for the services he has rendered to the country ). This was not the life of a journalist that needs to be felicitated with Sri Lankan peoples’ money. This is a career similar to any tele-drama actor or a B-list singer. Comparing this to humble lives of (most) Sri Lankan journalists is a disgrace to them.
Hadn’t BBC kept him here, Banadara would have been a keen competitor to Hudson Samarsingha in Sri Lanka.
Chandra P. - January 3, 2013
1:18 am
we must salute keerthi warnakulasuriya of sunday divaina who expose this thing. he even ekpose ranth kumarasingha also applied
kalum bandara - January 3, 2013
2:03 am
One other thing we can see is so called anti-corruption, anti-Mahinda, anti-racist web sites keeping mum on this issue. Even those operating from London.
After all, as Mahinda recently said, when it comes to ‘Ape Eka’ they turn blind eye. Sri lankan journalists are not different from Sri lnakan politicians in that respect. What those so called journalists of websites have done is similar to what Bahu did.
“Any corruption is fine if it is done by our friends, we will not mention it in our publications”. How this differs from what Rajapaksa’s doing today.
Moon-Gem - January 3, 2013
6:19 pm
Uh oh. Looks like the LTTE launderette that is BBC Sinhala is in a spot of bother these days
Siva Sankaran Sarma - January 3, 2013
6:57 pm
It’s great to see the Colombo Telegraph keeping up the pressure, but unless we get this story to the UK media (Daly Mail or Evening Standard), Teflon Priyath and Grease Yaka Bandara will slip through the net again.
Director General - January 3, 2013
11:31 pm
In UK terms his salary of £41k is too small to bother when some of the British employees or Sri Lankan origin News readers for BBC One have salaries running into millions of pounds. BTW “evening standard” is not sold any more but given away free- media has changed. In the UK a young graduate manager draws anything between £40-50k. RW was going to fix the guy by writing to Patton what has happened?
Wuliangguobinjiu - January 6, 2013
12:30 am
By applying for and accepting an interest free loan from the government, Bandara has sold his soul. He can no longer remain neutral in his reportage of Sri Lanka.
KR - January 7, 2013
5:51 am