The first government-commissioned inquiry into the previous government’s corruption and malpractices has cost taxpayers Rs 3.5 million, Colombo Telegraph can reveal today.
J. C. Weliamuna
The investigation ordered by Arjuna Ranatunga, the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Civil Aviation and carried out by former head of the Transparency International (Sri Lanka chapter) J. C. Weliamuna into Sri Lankan Airlines.
The anti-corruption and good governance activist and Lawyer J.C. Weliamuna speaking to Colombo Telegraph confirmed that he along with his team comprising of senior lawyers U.H. Palihakkara, B.A.W. Abeywardane and M.K.Bandara were paid Rs 3.5 million including all costs for the six week long investigation and the work carried out on the country’s national carrier.
Colombo Telegraph did request for a breakdown from Lawyer Weliamuna yesterday but he was not in a position to do so. A subsequent email was sent to him seeking this information. Weliamuna is yet to answer.
“There ought to be transparency on both the framework set for the inquiry and the basis for charging – the danger is this ends with those involved profiteering without [the public gaining] adequate benefits”, a Finance Ministry official told Colombo Telegraph on the condition of anonymity.
The six week long inquiry which commenced on the 18th of February was carried out to investigate the abuses of power by the Senior Management, irregularities into the procurement and /or leasing of aircraft, the procurement of goods and services and external interferences adversely affecting the smooth functioning of the national airline.
On the 8th of March 2015, the Board of Inquiry (BOI) submitted their initial findings to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe advising the suspension of Chief Operations Officer (CEO) Kapila Chandrasena until the inquiry was over. However the following day the 9th of March 2015 CEO Chandrasena tendered his resignation. The former Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe tendered his resignation before the BOI commenced their investigations.
The final ‘Weliamuna Report’ which consisted of 136 pages and broken down into eleven chapters also included the names of 80 informants who openly came forward. It is noted that there were many other employees of the airline who also came forward but did not wish to be named.
The final ‘Weliamuna Report’ report was submitted to the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on the 31st March 2015 and recommended criminal investigations into the entire re-fleeting process and had noted instances where former chairman Wickramasinghe, a brother-in-law of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and airlines’ CEO, Kapila Chandrasena, should be prosecuted.
Besides the resignation of the CEO mid way during the investigation not a single other employee identified as a perpetrator in the report have been either suspended or terminated.
A group of employees of the national carrier complained to Colombo Telegraph that they now fear personal bodily harm and also feel their jobs are been threatened for their boldness in speaking up to the BOI.
Huta Patas / May 7, 2015
What a waste of public monies. Weliamuna should have not charged so much but should have done it for free because he believes in anti-corruption. Weliamuna’s final report cost Rs 25,735 for a single page of his 136 page report. Wow ! I want to study Law and be a Lawyer Now!
/
Jayagath Perera / May 7, 2015
Find a lawyer who would do a job for a so called reasonable fee in Sri Lanka? Oh No! No! No!. On the other hand if we divide the cost not by the number of pages but by the number of lawyers then the cost per lawyer is about 700,000 bucks. But that is peanuts for a six week assignment. In other words the cost per lawyer per day in this case appears to be about 16,666 bucks. Good God! If you have to go to a really a good one the initial consultation itself can be 100,000 bucks. It is a small wonder that they spend their holidays in Switzerland and join the Alaska cruise in San Fransisco.
But what matters here is not the costs per-se but did the state get value for money. If the report only says that there is prima-facie case that does not help. The law enforcement is now required to have concrete evidence before prosecutions begin and that is the difficult part. I have not read the Weliamuna BOI report but I hope the report produces real solid evidence so that prosecutions can begin without delay.
/
Amarasiri / May 7, 2015
Huta Patas
“Weliamuna’s final report cost Rs 25,735 for a single page of his 136 page report. Wow ! I want to study Law and be a Lawyer Now! “
Figure out how much it cost the Taxpayers because of the Fraud done Mahinda Rajapaksas cronies, Say Rs. X.
Then measure the Ratio, X/(Rs.25,735 x Number of pages).
Then you will get ROI,Return on the Investment.
By singling the Mattala Airport, closing and doing some Changes in Air Lanka, the people have Already got a good return.
/
max / May 7, 2015
Way to go amarasiri. Whenever you open your mouth (pen) it reveals so much of you. According to your book, a fraud is fraud only when someone you hate involves. Your analysis are good for idiots like you only. My advise to you. Do not ever keep the pen down. Readers of CT deserve to know the size of your rowdiness and how much of a hypocrite you are!
/
Amarasiri / May 7, 2015
max
Did you learn your math from Wimal Modawansa, aka Buruwansa?
This is the Problem with the Modayas, Mootals and Fools who let themselves to be deceived by Mahinda Rajapaksa and their cronies, and showed their low IQ as a group to be around 65. Suckers!
Converting these Modayas, Mootals and Fools to be people with Common Sense will be a great advance for the country.
Modawansa says 2/2 =0.
If so, 2/0 =2 and 2=2×0.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s Speech on Wimal Weerawansa….. EEEya EEEya
[Edited out]
/
Amarasiri / May 7, 2015
max
Mahinda Rajapaksa, Raja, Raja Chanda Raja has no clothes and no shame. Wants to steal more.
/
max / May 8, 2015
Amarasiri, you should change your name as “Marasiri” because your points are “maarai”. See good editors of CT cannot publish your bullshit writings. So much so of your maths, science and common sense. Go ahead. Silent readers of CT would then be able to know your kind of jokers too are there – at least few. For you, only those who put ‘likes’ for your silly comments are educated, cultured and so on and those who question your ‘gong part’ are modays, mootals etc., Yes some booruwas do not know they are booruwas. No doubt. Your in that group.
/
Aia / May 7, 2015
Some thing for free? There no free luch these days, and this is the kind of behaviour which encourage corruption and other dirty deals. You price the work and pay the agreed amount if the party working has delivered the goods or service.
I am happy if the inquery has brought back Rs 35M, but it looks more. Well done JCW, at least we were able to understand the miles high activities.
/
Ben Hurling / May 7, 2015
Time to focus on Presidential Task Force for Recovery of Stolen Assets.
Wonder how much that will cost. Whether there will be a ROI for Sri Lanka at the end.
Will there be endless First Class trips to Switzerland by Task Force members? Will they book themselves into Dochester Hotel in London?
Cheers!
PS: BTW 3,5 million for a six week long high profile job is peanuts though. Compared to the utter national swindle Sri Lankan Airlines is. Hope Weliamuna has done a good job.
/
Martin / May 7, 2015
Finally some transparency in the costs made for an investigation (remember MR with his weekly or even daily “I will order investigation”…?) and Huta Patas starts complaining?
Of course proper investigations cost money. Remember that MR paid experts to make sure this money was transferred to family accounts – probably even paid more to those experts than what has been paid for this investigation.
/
chuti Putha / May 7, 2015
@ Huta Patas , I can see your point but think about the market rate for an openion from a leading Lawyer, As far as I know the leading Lawyers in Colombo ( Elite ) charge $ 1 lakh for One hour consultation. They are the best who can be trusted that they cold win a case for you, I can name them if you wish, there are some leading young up and comming Lawyers ( juniors of the said leading lawyers practising on their own now) charge Rs 50,000 foir an hour, so to charge Rs 35 lakhs for this report where you spned almost 2 months among 5 leading lawyers , think about the money they ve lost from their profession.
We have seen how the croney of MR who have not even passed O/L and A/L made massive bucks , bought Aeroplanes , begun construction of Hotels, Villas, Car sales, We witneed these after Jan 8th right? so for a magnitute of this nature to pile up a report like this I think these lawyers were under paid , because of this the whole country now witnessed how this Airline was run , Chairman ( MR s Br i Law ) ran the Airline like his own Private bus company, MR s Son transfred Cabin Crew girls for his Tharunhetak paying massive perks, and all the Other wastage of Salareis for incompetent Higher Managers and Pilots holding on to senior Positions serving MR for his wishes, tried to take Cadets Pilots by lowering marks,etc etc , Just imagined People of this country never had a chance to see these types of corruption before and thanks to this REPORT we have seen it,heard about it and Rogues are exposed, its up to the PM Ranil W to take this further but I doubt since the Minister incharge is now changed and we never kow if UNP come in to power and the SLFP folks will cover it up for his mates if they come back . But atleast for a day the rogues were exposed ,their dignity was questioned.We all know who they are now. Thanks to this report and for Rs 35 lakhs ( Rs 7 lakhs each among 5 lawyers lets assume ???) we wouldnt have got anything better.Great Stuff Weliamuna. We need more and more reports of other institutions like this so that we can frame the rogues.
/
Yasin / May 8, 2015
Eminent surgeons and doctors charge over Rs.50,000 for an hour’s job.
An engineer charges about the same for a consultancy report prepared in a day.
A mechanic makes about that much on a good day.
A welder earns about Rs.500 an hour.
A good lawyer is also a good investigator and Rs.26,000 is a cheap price to pay for virtually complete report on mismanagement, fraud and embezzlement
in the Sri Lankan Airlines.
If and when the government takes up this case in a court of law and when the named are proven guilty as reported then the guilty have to pay back what they have stolen, misapproppriated or embezzled.
When this end is achieved then the payment made to Mr.Weliamuna will be justified and of course it is up to the IRD to claim tax on his and the team’s earnings.
/
Yasin / May 8, 2015
Eminent surgeons and doctors charge over Rs.50,000 for an hour’s job.
An engineer charges about the same for a consultancy report prepared in a day.
A mechanic makes about that much on a good day.
A welder earns about Rs.500 an hour.
A good lawyer is also a good investigator and Rs.26,000 is a cheap price to pay for a virtually complete report on mismanagement, fraud and embezzlement
in the Sri Lankan Airlines.
If and when the government takes up this case in a court of law and when the named are proven guilty as reported then the guilty have to pay back what they have stolen, misapproppriated or embezzled.
When this end is achieved then the payment made to Mr.Weliamuna will be justified and of course it is up to the IRD to claim tax on his and the team’s earnings.
/
Dodo / May 7, 2015
Well, 25,000$ for an review of this nature is a bit high but justifiable if the job was well done and the evidence necessary to prosecute the corrupt officials of Sri Lankan are available and the funds recovered from the former CEO. Otherwise fighting corruption becomes a corrupt business!
If the fraudsters in Sri Lanka Air lines are held accountable and the funds recovered from Mahinda Rajapaksa’s corrupt in-laws and Nishantha Wickramasinghe, then the monies spent of the Wliamuna report would be worth it!.
/
M / May 7, 2015
Yahapalane at its best. Next move will be to appoint a commission to investigate Weliamuna & team and pay them 7 million. Aiyoooo got a headache !!!!!!
/
K.A Sumanasekera / May 7, 2015
Heee Heee. Heeee
Wonder how much those Sira’s commissioners will pocket to investigate Ranil’s other commission which gave a clean Bill of Health to our new deshapremi Lankan, Singapore Mahendran….
/
burt / May 7, 2015
Audits and investigations are not cheap and its tedious work. The the effort and the objective is defeated when you have a AG from the previous govt that practically is hesitant to act. Making it a waste of money.
Without complaining about the expense which is a sunk cost the govt should replace the AG and start charging offenders including the costs of investigations. If you start confiscating the ill gotten wealth and long jail term it would be a deterrent to future thieves.
/
nimal / May 7, 2015
Spending 3.5 million for such a credible report in six week is well worth. What they have done is a professional work and full of information to act on. If government takes action the return for 3.5 million is huge.
An expert consultant will charge more than 300$ per day for such a work.
But there are number of people getting more than one million for just being there. For example Telecom Chairman.
Raise our voice to implement the recommendation of Weliamuna report.
And also to continue the investigation of Arjuna’s son in law and Bank of Ceylon dealings.
/
justice / May 7, 2015
All of us, the people of Sri Lanka, are impatiently waiting for cases to be filed against those who plundered the nation’s wealth at Air Lanka.
I hope that this will not be postponed till after the parliamentary election.
Those who assisted in the probe must be protected.
/
Rohan / May 7, 2015
I agree that excess costs should be avoided. But, we should look at the break-down of expenditure. The, we look at another angle. Don’t you think the cost to bring a puppy dog to a powerful public servant from a European country costed much more than this. Don’t you think you could run ten inquiries of this sort with the money Sri Lankan Airlines spent on sending a plane load of cronies to wherever former President travelled to?
/
chuti putha / May 7, 2015
This amount is for the entire panel of 5, not just for Weliamuna,so think about it RS 35lakhs among 5people , not bad for a magnitude of this nature.
What did Lakshman R Watalwela and the clan did for golden key reviewed board, they got paid RS 3 lakhs each for almost 2years and left with out an outcome.
End of the day these guys are professionals lawyers .CEO of Sri Lankan Airline gets paid RS 15-20 lakhs per month, A Manager there gets almost RS 3 lakhs with other perks,
/
Lasanda / May 7, 2015
Didn’t these fools come to power to save money, as development was too costly for them? Develent at stand still but money is still wasted.
/
BBS Rep / May 7, 2015
If any of the recommendations made in the Waliamuna Report is implemented the money spent on the inquiry is well worth it.
If we close down the airline altogether the money spent by Waliamuna and Co are worth huge sums for generations to come. The airline is a drainage system for money.
/
Dullewe / May 7, 2015
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
/
Thumpane Gamaya / May 7, 2015
Charges are reasonable…this was a tedious job that was completed in six weeks. For an outsider to learn airline jargon it will take more time than this.The problem is not the cost but no action has been taken to recover the robbed public money from the chairman, board of directors and the management team. Ranil must know that public is watching him for his action now since he will be assessed for his performance in the next election.
/
ram / May 7, 2015
When will we realise that good things don’t come cheap?
Throw peanuts and you will get monkeys said Lee Kuan Yew!!
The airline lost Billions and comments are being made by many who knew nothing about the large scale robbery till this quality report came out in a reasonable period of time.
/
thondamannar / May 7, 2015
Ok…ok….. Be it Weliamuna or anyone there is nothing called patriotism or a free lunch………
So the band played on. So did the Transparency Intel Boss.
Music is the same.
The report is left in the back burner…………along with previous reports.
CB chairman with allegation of aiding & abetting a fraud by over looking was sent on leave untill the Investigation was completed.
Basil, Johnston sent for a rest to the reamAnd while Mahendran was sent to Singapore and investigation by two different entities..
WHAT DOES ONE CALL IT? DISCRIMINATION OR RACISM OR SWEET REVENGE FOR PROPAGANDA MILES?????????????
/
max / May 7, 2015
What else you can expect from this ngo funded man whose earn a living is HR.
/
maali karunaratne / May 7, 2015
3.5 million for a report like this is worth it and it is definitely not too much considering the time and the days spent on the report. Legal fees are so exorbitant that this fee is nothing. I know a lawyer who charged 2 million to write a letter and there is another labour lawyer charged 35000, for consultancy lasting 30 minutes. To do a legal submission an ordinary lawyer would charge over 150,000 What is paid to Weliamuna is pea nuts. I do not think it is necessary to ask detail expenditure
What is worrying is that no action has been taken. That is not the fault of the Weliamuna commission. We need to push this
/
chuti Putha / May 7, 2015
True !!!
/
Rio Ziegelaar / May 7, 2015
If the outcome of this whole report brings persons who looted the Airline or whatever to justice, then this cash is worth every cent spent. But if certain persons in the present Govt. cover up those certain persons then this is just another rip off.
/
Navin / May 7, 2015
Those guys who are making a song and dance of the Weliamuna Enquiry and Report, including the cheap article writer at CT deserve to be shot with their own shit.
Is it the fault of Mr Weliamuna if the scumbags in the Government responsible for taking action on the findings of the inquiry do not want to do their job?
/
Mohan W / May 7, 2015
This is day light robbery. How if these people were allowed to run a country’. Thank god it is only for 100 days?
/
Lanka Watch / May 7, 2015
Lawyer Weliamuna and his team worked hard to bring up a report to expose the wrong doings of the former Sri Lankan airlines middle and senior management but what is the use, as the management has put aside the report as the staff claim and no sub committee is studying the report. Fortunately for the Sri Lankan board,Hon. Minister Arjuna, who ordered the inquiry,is no longer the minister of aviation as he would have seen to it that the Chairman and the board worked on it and the new minister may have considered rupees 3.5 millions as pea nuts and not worth probing it any further.This is a billion dollar establishment
and the govt. should safe guard it from mismanagement and corruption.
This is the problem with the current govt. as they have commenced
so many inquiries and commissions and there is no follow up and the
perpetrators are having the last laugh.
/
Dan / May 7, 2015
Government need to appoint another commission to investigate
Mr. Weliamuna’s Work
/
Dan / May 7, 2015
[Edited out]
/
Loku Putha / May 7, 2015
Mr.Welimuna
Are you calling yourself an anti corruption and good governanve Activist Lawyer while refusing to give a breakdown of your fee. It is a collosal amount and can you earn so much as a lawyer throughout your life.
[Edited out]
/
Jimmy Dell / May 8, 2015
Give me a break. What a wonderful job Weliamuna had done. The fee is not for just writing “a” report. He and his team conducted an indebt investigation and put on the table information about corruption that is shocking to say the lease.
Weliamuna apart from being one of the few outspoken advocate for bread and butter matters is a class act.
What matters is the outcome. In this instance the outcome not only tells a pathetic story about people who screw Sri Lanka but stands as a solid deterrent to future wannebes.
/
Donald J Gnanakone / May 8, 2015
Editor,
Why don’t you follow up on this investigations and also publish your email Please?
Please also provide the full details of all the directors and details of their First and Business class travel in the past 120 days, not only on Sri Lankan Airlines but other airlines as well. Especially those who are based overseas with homes/offices and also have dual offices and businesses, in Sri Lanka.
FYI, the directors of Sri Lankan Airlines can get discounted First Class and Business Class Travel for them as well as their entire family on other airlines. I should know because I was a Pilot with Air Ceylon and UTA French Airlines from 1969. I did not have any family then. In the seventies there was severe restriction on foreign travel and an era of CJC where the government terrorizzed everybody with the Foreign Exchange laws. lol.
Donald Gnanakone.
/
Lanka / May 8, 2015
So never mind the fee, what is the out come? Have they proved all the alligations/ That is what matters in the end. However, if nothing happens, yes the “fee” will be a waste!
/
Lucky / May 8, 2015
As per the report our YES MANAGERS are in action,still doing their own thing to benefit them self at srilankan,if their no change in the top management it will be disaster?…..
/
Jim Brown / May 8, 2015
Never mind how much Spend for inquiry, Bring the culprits to Books.&
punish them.MR Always talk this is not yasa palanaya.but he is the main culprit.
/
Dinesh / May 8, 2015
Wali doing what he is good at it. In addition to what he got from the SL tax payers I wonder how much $s he got for this report from his foreign NGO buddies :-). He should have done this pro-bono to set an example to other lawyers…well he did not. I believe recently he was also a party for a trip to NY with Mangala Samaraweera and spent an exorbitant amount on the room at a five star hotel in NY. I am sure there would have been many Sri-Lankans who would have loved to Host Wali and his gang during his trip to NY, but they opted to stay in a luxury hotel in NY (CT did publish that information). Well Wali…you talk the talk but has been always reluctant to walk the walk…:-)
/