Lanka Hospitals PLC has paid a hefty Rs. 21 million to its Board of Directors headed by former secretary to the ministry of defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa to attend Board meetings.
Gotabaya
The Hospital, which was under his chairmanship until January 2015, spent the Rs. 21 million for a period of two years to pay it’s Board Members to attend the customary meetings. In 2014, the Hospital had spent approximately Rs. 6.9 million, and in 2015 the hospital paid approximately Rs. 13.6 million to the Board of Directors, to attend the meetings.
The payment was made based on how many Board meetings, the members attended. The Board Members included; Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Roshini Cabraal, D.P.A. Fernando, G.W.K. Wickremasinghe, M. Mohan Singh, N.A.P.B. Wijesririwardena, P.A. Lionel, Y.D. Nihal Jayatilleka, N.L.K. Ganganath Karunaratna, Sunil Godhwani, Vishal Bali, Daljith Singh, Sanjeev Vashishta, P. Raghunath, K.H.C. Daphne, Sandeep Puri, K.P. Jayasuriya, Karthik Rajagopal, M.S. Perera, H. Hemal Gunasekara, H. Asita de Silva, S.M. Wijeratne, S.T. Nanayakkara, Ven. Thiniyawala Palitha thero, Sarath Paranavitane, M.D.S. Lokuhetty, R. Lalith Wijesundara, Damien Fernando, Anil Abeywickrema, Ms. Uma Rajamantri, H.A.C. Siriwardena, K.S. Srivastava, and Ravi Sachdev, over a period of two years.
Rajapaksa resigned from his position of chairmanship of Lanka Hospitals PLC, after his brother, Mahinda lost the Presidential elections in 2015. The Government owns majority of the shares at Lanka Hospitals.
Meanwhile, even though reports said that the Board of Directors were paid for attending meetings, in the list of names submitted to Parliament by Minister of Public Enterprise Development, Eran Wickremeratne, Rajapaksa’s name was not listed as a member of the Board who received an allowance for attending the meetings.
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Analyst / May 18, 2016
This 21 Million Rs. Should have been used on Education , Health ect .
Tax payers money had been used to ” Kaala Beela , ” Jolly ride ,
The government cronies and friends are ready to eat and drink free on the state.
Body massage , free food and drinks, jolly rides , should be Banned in the Parliament and outside the Parliament on the state.
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Jagath Fernando / May 19, 2016
Lets get out our facts correct.
The board fees are for 2 years. At any given time the no of directors did not exceed 10 members. There were three sets of board members during the last 2 years. There were three chairmen as well and Gota was one of them. from what I understand Gota did not personally receive any directors fees and his fee was credited to a welfare fund for charitable purposes. Other two chairmen and board members all received their board fees including the Buddhist monk.
I think the issue in question is whether the amount is reasonable? It is likely that wthe fee per meeting per board member is approx Rs 100,000. Th Buddhist monk is also a board member. The fees paid is disclosed on the annual report and shareholders have approved it. So what is the issue?
There are numerous board sub committees and it is likely that the board sub committee members may have drawn the same fees as attending board meetings. This could be clarified from the current board members appointed by the yahapalanaya govt. Also from the information available the fees paid to yahapalanaya board members have not reduced compared to MARA regime board members.
Some of the board members are medical professionals and hence there may be consultant fees earned in addition to board fees if they are practicing medicine at Lanka Hospitals.
The majority shareholder is SLIC and BoC and hence they may have approved the board fees since their nominees are on the board as well.
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sarojini / May 19, 2016
Gothabaya was appointed as a Honorary Chairman by the board of directors . Can the SL understand what it means ??? I doubt it very much . So let ignorance prevail like it normally happens in SL and accuse GR of earning millions !
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sr / May 18, 2016
“Lanka hospitals PLC has paid a hefty Rs 21 million to its board……….. “
It seems to be that shareholders haven’t taken the matter seriously. The main concern should be for them.
There’re 35 members in the board of directors and the writer has failed to mention the number of meetings held during that 2 years and number of hrs the board got together etc.
So for average people, Rs 21 million for board meetings for 2 years doesn’t show any abnormality; however what’s important is whether they are clearly indicated in the annual reports.
So Rs 21 million may not be a hefty expenditure provided the company is financially sound.
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Ansar / May 18, 2016
The whole MARA family is a disgrace to the law abiding citizens of our country.
These murderers and plunderers virtually raped our country and it’s people to the core, just because they happened to be at the helm, when the war was won with loss of life and limb of our valiant tri forces, headed by General SF. There were the loss of civilians as well. This is really tantamount to saving one’s mother while drowning and raping her as a reward for saving her.
Bloody clowns who still go behind this murderous and plundering family, open your bloody eyes for the sake of our country, without thinking of the bones these clowns throw at you.
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Shan / May 19, 2016
“Meanwhile, even though reports said that the Board of Directors were paid for attending meetings, in the list of names submitted to Parliament by Minister of Public Enterprise Development, Eran Wickremeratne, Rajapaksa’s name was not listed as a member of the Board who received an allowance for attending the meetings.”
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harry hatton / May 18, 2016
Gota could not do much here, a real challenge, cannot bark orders to doctors & patients. The hospital was bankrupt
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punchinilame / May 19, 2016
Is this why a Case is pending? Or is this a red-herring –
Case No. 24327/2015 at Chief M.C.(3) In the matter of Lanka Hospital shares and connected to G. Rajapakse, Roshini ,Cabraal, N.Godahewa, D.Jayaweera, M. Medihewa, W.Amunugamuwa, D.P.Y. Wijesinghe. (Rs. 600 million)
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Patriot / May 18, 2016
CT Admin get your facts correct. The above shows more than 30 Board Members. Some of them are appointed by the Yahapalana Government. If you look at it in 2015 (Gota resigned in Jan 2015). The Yahapalana Board has helped themselves to twice what Gota’s board was taking. So dont please mislead people.
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Non PhD / May 18, 2016
Why he chose to resign only after his brother MR lost the presidential election ?
GR should have continued in the interest of the country as he is another smart patriot like DJ.The difference between GR & DJ is, the latter doesn’t have a dual citizenship where as GR is a citizen of both US & SL.
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Asitha De Mel / May 18, 2016
Why are so many Directors on the Board of Lanka Hospitals?
Are all of them qualified to hold directorship posts. Do they know about making decisions of a hospital. Do they have any knowledge about medicines/medical knowledge??
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Shan / May 19, 2016
CT at it again. Why use Gotha’s photo when it was not clear whether he got paid.
“Meanwhile, even though reports said that the Board of Directors were paid for attending meetings, in the list of names submitted to Parliament by Minister of Public Enterprise Development, Eran Wickremeratne, Rajapaksa’s name was not listed as a member of the Board who received an allowance for attending the meetings.”
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Burt / May 19, 2016
This guy literally “Rata Kaawa”. Loot the country through all means possible.
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Shan / May 19, 2016
Whose country, Tamil Eelam?
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KA Sumanasekera / May 19, 2016
Get real guys.
Just a lousy 50k for a Board Member per year is freaking peanuts,,
Some of these dudes sound like Hindians .
You can’t be a Board Member unless one can read and write English and have some knowledge of looking at figure and trying to make sense.
How many of the Yahapalana colleagues of Mr Eran have these competences?.
Even his close mate Dr Harsha couldn’t workout how the Economy in the North grew by 22 %, when the average National was only 8.5 .
That was before Yahapalanaya of course.
And Duminda dissanayaka pays LKR 21 Million per month to his fellow Minister Dr Rajitha as rent.
Wonder whether those two can be Board Members in private companies!!!!
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punchinilame / May 19, 2016
“Even his close mate Dr Harsha couldn’t workout how the Economy in the North grew by 22 %, when the average National was only 8.5 …” and
G.L.Peris during his time tendered these figures to the UN and had to
withdraw them as fallacy, when it became clear that the Earnings/expenses of 150,000 Army personnel was included into the NP
figures to inflate it!!
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thrishu / May 19, 2016
Hmmmmm, actually it sounds like an unreasonable amount. But if you analyze it it amounts to about Rs 884 per day per person assuming that they do keep a working interest on the affairs of the hospital on a day to day basis. That is Rs 21Mn divided amongst the 33 directors listed above, over 2-years, assuming that they work 365 days (allowing for paid-holidays)per year. Rs 884 per day equates to less than 4.50GBP per day. Actually I think it is a good deal if we could retain a directors interest on an establishment merely for 4.50 GBP per day. I must say, Bully for YOU GOTA, well done . Let us be fair and give the man his credit.
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thrishu / May 19, 2016
PS: That said, 33-Directors to manage an enterprise seem to be extraordinarily high number.Did he really employ them?
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BBS Rep / May 19, 2016
“Eran Wickremeratne, Rajapaksa’s name was not listed as a member of the Board who received an allowance for attending the meetings.
Eran did what his boss asked him to do. My3 and co are Eran’s bosses.
You can make your own conclusions.
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Yahapalanaya / May 19, 2016
Is it possible for the CT readers to know the background and skills of these lucky people and the value that was brought to the board room? Wasn’t N. Godahewa (onetime SEC head and accused of being connected to the mafia) also a director? what is that monk doing? rep. of BBS?
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Jagath Fernando / May 21, 2016
Most members are from private sector with good backgrounds. Some of the others are medical professionals such as Bandula Wijesiriwardhena. BoC had their chair Ganini Wickremasinghe and DGM International Lionel. Roshini is a Chartered Accountant.
Current board has medics such as Paranavithana and Asitha as well as businessman Damien who is a nominee of Harry J.
Former board also had Kumar J who was chair of Finlays.
They are worth Rs 100,000 per meeting.
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Douglas / May 19, 2016
What was the assignment handled by that “Buddhist Priest” to receive payments? Is there a single place in Government service we cannot find a “Buddhist Priest”? Why that hospital is called a “Hospital” instead a “Aramaya” or “Asapuwa”?
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sr / May 19, 2016
Douglas
It’s good even a clergy to be an investor provided that it’s not money laundering.
It’s well known that temple tills spill rapidly.
Instead of making temples palaces; investing that money in companies should be appreciated and encouraged.
A financially sound investor monk may find way to be a company director.
socially it may be seen unethical but business wise it isn’t unethical.
I’m not supporting this particular monk but we have to be ethical in our arguments.
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Plato. / May 20, 2016
Douglas.
Your line….
What was the assignment handled by that Buddhist Priest to receive payments?
Perhaps,before each Board meeting he ties the Pirith Nool round the wrists of the Board Members,before they dip their hands into the Till!
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thrishu / May 20, 2016
Directing the company policy for last rites? Quite legitimate, you know!
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