THE CRASH LANDING OF “SRI LANKAN”

 

The sad state of affairs of the national carrier Sri Lankan has burst into the open when the President had summoned the directors of the airline recently.

Shocking details of the goings on had come to light with the release of Weliamuna report which investigated corruption and malpractices under the Rajapakse regime.

What was really damaging the airline was that the current CEO and the chairman too had been taking arbitrary decisions which were not in the interest of the airline.

The Weliamuna report had highlighted that the airline was a Paradise for sex predators ( really giving a completely different meaning to its slogan of Taste of Paradise! ) with the top management demanding sexual favours from cabin crew and young employees, leading to a breakdown of discipline at all levels.

There is a classic case of an air hostess who drew a salary and flying allowances while working for four years as a personal aide to Namal Rajapakse, the son of Mahinda Rajapakse. 

In fact, the committee had recommended criminal prosecutions of then  Chairman, Nishantha Wickremasinghe – Mahinda’s Brother in law – for allegedly defrauding the state in addition to abuse of power and soliciting sexual favours.  There were also procurement deals where conflict of interest was seen, such as sales of duty free goods and wine, which the committee had identified as blatantly corrupt deals. It had also found the then chief executive, Kaplila Chandrasena had falsified documents to lease luxury vehicles for the then Chairman Wickremasinghe.

What is really unbelievable is why no action had been taken at all on any of these findings in spite of the fact that the Yahapalana government had appointed a new Board of Directors and a chief executive to clean up the mess.  Yet another instance of proof that the “changes” promised by the Yahapalana government were just an eye-wash proving the saying that “ ‘Birds’ of a flock get together” (pun intended)