{"id":180004,"date":"2017-07-18T01:29:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T19:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=180004"},"modified":"2017-07-18T11:59:24","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T06:29:24","slug":"us-50000-taxpayer-money-saved-srilankan-airlines-ceo-ratwattes-flying-scholarship-is-terminated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-50000-taxpayer-money-saved-srilankan-airlines-ceo-ratwattes-flying-scholarship-is-terminated\/","title":{"rendered":"US $ 50,000 Taxpayer Money Saved: SriLankan Airlines’ CEO Ratwatte’s Flying Scholarship Is Terminated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Capt. Rajind Ranatunga the Head of Flight Operations confirmed that CEO Suren Ratwatte’s flying scholarship<\/a> offered by Chairman Ajith Dias and approved by the Board of Directors which cost the tax payer around US $ 50,000 has been terminated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

CEO Ratwatte<\/p><\/div>\n

Responding to a letter received from the Airline Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka regarding many questions raised pertaining to CEO Ratwatte’s abuse of power, Capt. Rajind Ranatunga responded by stating that he had received instructions from Chairman Ajith Dias that the costly Airbus 320 conversion course will not be continuing.<\/p>\n

Earlier CEO Ratwatte had misused his authority and had got down Instructors of his choice to conduct Ground School classes in the comfort of his World Trade Center office. This is besides hand picking Capt. Mohan Pragasam to conduct his Simulator Training and obtaining the services of Capt. Nimal Rambukwella to conduct his Simulator Check. It was also reported Simulator Instructor Capt. Pragasam had failed to document a ‘tail strike’ that CEO Ratwatte had committed during his training.<\/p>\n

However CEO Ratwatte’s abuse of power was exposed when he got his Secretary to call the airline’s Manager of Crew Rostering Nalaka De Soyza and have his scheduled Line Training Instructor Capt. Amjad Murad Shafeek removed and replaced with Capt. Ranga Amadoru an instructor of his choice.<\/p>\n

Thereafter with Colombo Telegraph<\/em> breaking the story, the APGSL also wrote to Capt. Rajind Ranatunga questioning him as to how he was permitting CEO Ratwatte to abuse his authority in such a blatant manner whilst compromising flight safety.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile with Capt. Ranatunga continuing to schedule Line Training Instructor Capt. Amjath Murad Shafeek to fly with CEO Ratwatte on two back to back Line Training Flights, the CEO requested for annual leave stating that he wished go visit his family who reside in Australia.<\/p>\n

However it was confirmed that CEO Ratwatte never traveled to Australia but rather spent time away from his training in Trincomalee.<\/p>\n

With the cost of the now terminated Airbus 320 conversion course running into millions of rupees, it is hoped that the loss making national carrier will recover the incurred training costs from CEO Ratwatte.<\/p>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Rajind Ranatunga \u2013 HFO [xxxxxxx@srilankan.com<\/a>]
\nSent:<\/strong>\u00a0Saturday, July 15, 2017 7:07 PM
\nTo:<\/strong>\u00a0Airline Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka
\nCc:<\/strong>\u00a0Pravin Wettimuny – Chief Pilot – A330; Chaminda De Zoysa – Chief Pilot – A320; Romesh De Silva; Chairman; Suren Ratwatte – CEO
\nSubject:<\/strong>\u00a0Re: CEO’s Line Training<\/p>\n

Dear Capt Perera,<\/p>\n

We the Flight Operations management has been officially informed by the Chairman, that the CEO, Capt Suren Ratwatte, will not be continuing his A320 training any further.<\/p>\n

Regards,<\/p>\n

Rajind.<\/p>\n

Capt Rajind Ranatunga \u2013 HFO<\/p>\n

Head of Flight Operations, SriLankan Airlines Ltd.
\nFlight Operations, Airline Centre,\u00a0Bandaranaike International Airport,\u00a0Katunayake, Sri Lanka.
\nTel: +94197332319 | Mobile:\u00a0+94710212319<\/a>\u00a0| Fax: +94197335211
\nE-Mail:\u00a0rajind.ranatunga@srilankan.com<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Web:\u00a0www.srilankan.com<\/a><\/p>\n

(Chamindri Karannagoda)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":179217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nUS $ 50,000 Taxpayer Money Saved: SriLankan Airlines' CEO Ratwatte's Flying Scholarship Is Terminated - 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\/us-50000-taxpayer-money-saved-srilankan-airlines-ceo-ratwattes-flying-scholarship-is-terminated\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US $ 50,000 Taxpayer Money Saved: SriLankan Airlines' CEO Ratwatte's Flying Scholarship Is Terminated - 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