{"id":144739,"date":"2015-05-16T01:05:07","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T19:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=144739"},"modified":"2015-06-30T17:02:44","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T11:32:44","slug":"sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan Airlines – Alleged Corruption – Accountability: Acid Test For TISL & \u2018Friday Forum\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Amrit Muttukumaru<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Amrit<\/a>

Amrit Muttukumaru<\/p><\/div>\n

It is becoming clearer by the day that those concerned in the top management of Sri Lankan Airlines<\/span><\/a> rapped for alleged corruption and abuse of power by the Weliamuna Report<\/span><\/a> will go scot-free. This is because it is highly unlikely (almost impossible) that the long standing auditors and then high profile directors will ever be held accountable for any dereliction of duty. From all indications, Mr. J. C. Weliamuna<\/span><\/a> and his team have let them off the hook! This is the ground reality in Sri Lanka. It is nauseatingly apparent that it is \u2018BUSINESS AS USUAL\u2019 for all concerned.<\/p>\n

The Weliamuna Report which confirms the corruption and gross abuse of power the public has long suspected, has been SELECTIVE in allocating responsibility for this. Weliamuna is the Chairman of Transparency International Sri Lanka and previously its Executive Director. The positive feature of the report is that it has described the alleged corruption and abuse in lurid detail.<\/p>\n

Based on the Prime Minister\u2019s statement<\/span><\/a> (which Weliamuna has not refuted) the report which castigates Chairman, Nishantha Wickramasinghe, Kapila Chandrasena (CEO) and some others in top management, questionably neglects to state that this took place UNDER THE WATCH of long standing auditors \u2013 Ernst & Young and its then Board of Directors which included corporate bigwigs \u2013 Susantha Ratnayake, Nihal Jayamanne PC, Sunil G Wijesinha, Sanath Ukwatte and Manilal Fernando \u2013 many of them also in its Audit Committee \u2013 some even as Chairmen!<\/p>\n

\"SriLankan<\/a>While recommending \u201ccriminal investigations\u201d into instances of alleged corruption which includes the entire re-fleeting process with brand-new aircraft costing $2.3 billion and \u201cnoting instances\u201d where former Chairman Wickramasinghe and some others in top management should be \u201cprosecuted\u201d the report is apparently silent on any proposed punitive action against the airline\u2019s auditors and Board of Directors for ANY NEGLIGENCE of fiduciary responsibility inimical to the PUBLIC INTEREST.<\/p>\n

By what stretch of imagination can purported advocates of \u2018good governance\u2019 baulk from DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY from the airline\u2019s auditors and then directors \u2013 particularly members of the Audit Committee?<\/p>\n

This is the ACID TEST for the CREDIBILITY of particularly \u2018Transparency International Sri Lanka\u2019 and \u2018Friday Forum\u2019 of which the key figures are Messrs. Weliamuna and Chandra Jayaratne respectively.<\/p>\n

RS.250 Million: Accountability<\/strong><\/p>\n

I will not sidetrack the focus of this article by addressing issues such as the reported reluctance of Weliamuna to reveal<\/span><\/a> the breakup of the Rs 3.5 million said to have been received by his four- member team (including him) or at the very least the fee paid to him for the Sri Lankan Airlines assignment.<\/p>\n

My only comment is – this is not surprising since the public are yet to see the financial accountability for the whopping RS.250 MILLION\u00a0foreign funded\u00a0‘SRI LANKA ANTI- CORRUPTION PROGRAM’ of which the main local partners were inter-connected NGOs \u2013 Transparency International Sri Lanka, Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Free Media Movement<\/span><\/a>. Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Executive Director of CPA was then a Director of TISL while Mr. Sunanda Deshapriya<\/span><\/a>, then Convener of the FMM was then a Director of CPA!\u00a0Mr. Chandra Jayaratne<\/span><\/a> was also then a Director of TISL of which Weliamuna was then Executive Director (presently Chairman).<\/p>\n

The \u2018Free Media Movement\u2019 is one of the four parties that established the private media controlled \u2018Sri Lanka Press Institute\u2019 purportedly towards an ethical media. The Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka (PCCSL) is a crucial part of the SLPI.<\/p>\n

Both Weliamuna and Jayaratne are also members of the \u2018Friday Forum\u2019.<\/p>\n

My simple urging ref. e-mail of 27 August 2007 to also include on their respective websites<\/p>\n

\u201cproject based donor information (inclusive of amount and source) together with concomitant expenditure appropriately broken down to also reflect administrative and personnel costs and payments to individuals\u201d does not appear to have yet materialized.<\/p>\n

The auditors of TISL, CPA, PCCSL and John Keells Holdings are Ernst & Young who are also the long standing auditors of Sri Lankan Airlines!<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is wholly untenable to maintain that NGOs are only accountable to their donors. Their accountability should ultimately and crucially be to the people of this country\u00a0since all their efforts are purportedly to alleviate the \u2018miseries\u2019 of its peoples!<\/p>\n

It is also crucial that the public push hard for a \u2018MEDIA COMMISSION\u2019 or any other appropriate mechanism (Ombudsman?) to be brought under the ambit of the 19th Amendment as an \u2018INDEPENDENT\u2019 entity to bring an acceptable level of integrity and credibility to our media.<\/p>\n

These are all cogent reasons why the Corporate and NGO sectors MUST BE INCLUDED<\/span><\/a> in the proposed \u2018RIGHT TO INFORMATION\u2019 legislation which has still not been placed in the public domain!<\/p>\n

No doubt these proposals will be STRONGLY RESISTED by vested interests.<\/p>\n

On the Sri Lankan Airlines accountability issue which is the FOCUS of this article – the million dollar question is:<\/p>\n

WILL TISL & \u2018FRIDAY FORUM\u2019 PUT THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS AND BITE THE BULLET?<\/p>\n

Weliamuna has all the INFLUENCE NEEDED to do so, since he obviously has the ear of the \u2018movers & shakers\u2019 of the government (i) as a member of the \u2018Special Presidential Task Force for the Recovery of Illegally Acquired State Assets\u2019 (ii) leader of the team appointed to investigate alleged corruption in Sri Lankan Airlines.<\/p>\n

Those reluctant to hold professionals and corporate bigwigs accountable and \u2018name & shame\u2019 wrongdoers have clearly lost the moral authority to speak of good governance and any pretense to combat corruption. If they fail to do so – they must forever hold their peace!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":142887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8,6968],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial","category-popular-columns"],"yoast_head":"\nSri Lankan Airlines - Alleged Corruption - Accountability: Acid Test For TISL & \u2018Friday Forum\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sri Lankan Airlines - Alleged Corruption - Accountability: Acid Test For TISL & \u2018Friday Forum\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-15T19:35:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-30T11:32:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"144\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"173\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/\",\"name\":\"Sri Lankan Airlines - Alleged Corruption - Accountability: Acid Test For TISL & \u2018Friday Forum\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-15T19:35:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-30T11:32:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru.jpg\",\"width\":144,\"height\":173,\"caption\":\"Amrit Muttukumaru\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sri Lankan Airlines – Alleged Corruption – Accountability: Acid Test For TISL & \u2018Friday Forum\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sri Lankan Airlines - Alleged Corruption - Accountability: Acid Test For TISL & \u2018Friday Forum\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sri Lankan Airlines - Alleged Corruption - Accountability: Acid Test For TISL & \u2018Friday Forum\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2015-05-15T19:35:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-06-30T11:32:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":144,"height":173,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/","name":"Sri Lankan Airlines - Alleged Corruption - Accountability: Acid Test For TISL & \u2018Friday Forum\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru.jpg","datePublished":"2015-05-15T19:35:07+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-30T11:32:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru.jpg","width":144,"height":173,"caption":"Amrit Muttukumaru"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-airlines-alleged-corruption-accountability-acid-test-for-tisl-friday-forum\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sri Lankan Airlines – Alleged Corruption – Accountability: Acid Test For TISL & \u2018Friday Forum\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Amrit-Muttukumaru.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144739"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145055,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144739\/revisions\/145055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}