News
Charter flight and credit card scams: Commission recommends charges against Sajin Vass
View(s):Clear abuse of the system
There had been several excess sums paid on account of charter flights by the Presidential Secretariat to Mihin. It would have been prudent to verify the amounts invoiced and also request for a breakdown, as this is all public funds. Instead, the CEO of Mihin Lanka seems to have taken his designation for granted and it paved the way for CEO Sajin de Vass Gunawardena to abuse the process, the Commission noted.
He had taken it upon himself to send the final invoice to the Secretariat. Was this his function? On the other hand, he seems to have been taken for granted and permitted to do things the way he desires. No proper accounting methods were adopted. We do not know whether in fact the higher authorities instructed the Chief Accountant not to verify the sums due, which should be the usual practice. We also had the opportunity to hear the evidence of the witness regarding Sajin de Vass Gunawardena conducting the charter flights. He made use of credit card operations for his own personal use. This is clear abuse of the system and corruption.
Our views are fortified having perused the evidence of Suresh Raju of Mihin, who was an experienced officer in the aviation industry. His evidence is supportive of the earlier witness Athula Dissanayake.
Sajin de Vass Gunawardena, CEO, authorised the above officers to utilise the credit cards for VVIP travel on charter flights. If the payments made by the credit cards were for official use, there cannot be any complaint. There was no evidence placed before this Commission that it could have been used (credit card) for unofficial payments identified for certain items of expenditure. Certain unofficial payments too were authorised by the CEO. It requires to be explained, by Sajin de Vass Gunawardena. He never cooperated with this Commission. His excuse for doing so was already discussed, but in fairness, we place the correspondence in this regard in our report. His position in this regard cannot be accepted. The warrant given to the Commissioners focuses on Section 14 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act. That would not mean that recommendations cannot be made to take legal action against the CEO. He no doubt was playing hide and seek.
In the absence of an explanation by the CEO Sajin V. Gunawardena to several questions posed by the Commission, it would lend us support to make recommendations to the authority concerned, to consider instituting civil and criminal proceedings. We also note that some records were not placed before us due to the excuses made by the liquidator and other witnesses, connecting liquidation proceedings, and other acts, and as such, their inability to trace documents due to various reasons. Some witnesses tried to capitalise on the lapse of time.
It may be prudent for the Commission to Investigate Bribery and Corruption to initiate further investigations into this matter through the Criminal Investigations Department, prior to forwarding any charges. Further, we would also kindly invite the Commission to Investigate Bribery and Corruption to consider Section 4(2)(b) of the Act No.19 of 1994.
In the light of the above facts, charges under the Offences Against Public Property Act should be seriously considered, along with further investigations for misappropriation and criminal breach of trust.
In any event, we also invite the Attorney General to also consider whether the material placed before this Commission could be utilised for a charge of corruption and/or cheating.
This Commission, having examined ‘charter flights’ operations, more particularly, charter flights organised for Government delegations by SriLankan Airlines Ltd. and Mihin Lanka (Pvt) Ltd., need to observe something specific which needs to be rectified for the benefit of our Motherland and the airline.
Observations
As regards Mihin Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. a precursor but an unwarranted method had been adopted to settle bills by credit card payments, which led to abuses during 2007 and 2008. If a genuine bill was settled in that manner, there would be no complaints. Unfortunately, there had been unauthorised and unexplained situations where payments by credit cards were abused, which amounted to very large sums of money (public funds) expended for other purposes which cannot be termed strictly official.
Why was this permitted and for whose sake was it done? This matter needs further investigation which should be initiated by the present and future leaders of our country, as payments have been done by the Presidential Secretariat for large sums of money pertaining to charter flights in the years 2007/2008. Further, costing of expenditure was not properly conveyed to the Secretariat by Mihin. This is a lapse of auditing standards.
In the SriLankan Airlines charter flights, a number of flights were organised for Government delegations, during the period 2011 to end of 2014.
The passenger manifestos of the airline relevant to the period, indicate that sums of money settled by the Government and in another instance, not settled by the Government.