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Mihin crew’s lunch and Sajin’s credit card payments
View(s):Charter Flight to Uganda (CHOGM Conference)
As explained in paragraph of the witness’s Affidavit marked, an official state visit was made to Kampala, Uganda on the 27th November 2007 on a Mihin Lanka charter flight, in which the witness was part of the Mihin Lanka operational staff that travelled with the Government delegation.
The witness states that this was a ‘VVIP’ charter flight and the Government delegation consisted of the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his delegation of approximately 90 persons. The purpose of this visit was for the then President and his delegation to attend the CHOGM Summit in Uganda. The route of this journey to Uganda was Colombo-Dubai-Sudan-Entebbe.
Witness states that a technical stop was made in Sudan to refuel the aircraft. On the return journey, the route taken was Entebbe-Tehran-Shiraz-Colombo.
During this trip, two significant expenditures were incurred and paid through the official credit card given to witness Mr Raju; Rs. 100,162.86 in Kampala and Rs. 2,937,118.16 in Entebbe, Uganda.
According to the oral and Affidavit evidence of this witness placed before this Commission, there seems to be over 17 persons who had partaken in this trip to Uganda, including several officials of Mihin Lanka. Witness adds that CEO Sajin de Vass Gunawardena stayed at a different hotel in Kampala for which accommodation was provided to him funded by the State.
Witness Raju brought the attention of this Commission to an important point regarding the above trip; it seems that when he made the credit card payments for the hotels in Uganda, the witness was given only the payment receipts for the credit card, and the actual hotel bill invoice was taken over by the CEO. The CEO had informed the witness that he himself would produce the hotel bills to the Mihin Lanka accountant. The witness had asked for copies of those invoices for his records to which the CEO had responded asking the witness “not to worry about it.” The witness adds that a similar situation occurred in an official trip to Turkey where the CEO did not give the witness the hotel bills and the CEO himself had kept them.
The witness provided that in the Uganda trip there were 17 individuals. This included CEO Sajin de Vass Gunawardena, his personal coordinator Wimal Perera, the Turkish Airlines wet lease Cabin Crew, 4 SLA Cabin Crew persons, and officials of Mihin Lanka including the witness.
Additionally, according to this witness, the CEO had also organised a lunch at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel, Entebbe, the hotel in which the officials (except the CEO) were staying and that this lunch was also paid for by the same official credit card.
Witness Raju states that this lunch was hosted for the entire 17-person group of Mihin Lanka and cabin crew group that travelled to Uganda, and also included the Manager of the hotel and 5-6 officials of the hotel. The witness adds that the Hotel Manager in Entebbe was a Sri Lankan Tamil individual and that according to what he observed, the Hotel Manager seemed to be a friend of CEO Gunawardena.
The Hotel Manager was a Director of a couple of chain hotels, and was advisor to the President of Uganda. Witness Suresh Raju says he knew the Hotel Manager to be an old ‘Thomian’ as he too was an old ‘Thomian’. According to this witness, the bill for this particular hotel was Rs. 2,937,118.16. As such, the evidence provided by this witness shows that a bill of nearly Rs. 3 million was incurred to accommodate a group of 17 persons for 4 days. Undoubtedly, the lunch organised by the CEO greatly increased the total value of the bill.
The immense cost incurred during this trip to Uganda is significant, and we at the Commission wonder why such a cost was incurred and paid for by the official company credit card when it seems that these costs were beyond what can be official costs incurred, such as those for refuelling and ground handling charges. The incurring of nearly Rs. 3 million for the officials and the crew with an additional cost over Rs. 1 million for the CEO himself, which is rather surprising since according to the evidence of Mr Raju, the CEO Gunawardena received an official room at his hotel due to him being part of the official Government delegation. How did the CEO incur a cost of over Rs. 1 million if his accommodation was already paid for? This itself is a rather suspicious occurrence and one which the Commission finds to be a serious concern, as it seems to be unauthorised.
Sudden Termination of Employment of Capt. Nihal Gunawardene
According to this witness, immediately subsequent to this trip, Captain Nihal Gunawardene’s services at the airline were terminated. The witness states that he is not aware of the reasoning behind this decision, but that according to his knowledge, it was the CEO who wanted Captain Gunawardene to cease his operations at Mihin. CEO Sajin De Vass Gunawardena had informed the witness and other senior management that due to “technical reasons”, Captain Nihal will not be continuing at Mihin.
The firing of Captain Nihal is a matter which this Commission takes seriously, as it points to the arbitrary decision-making by the CEO.
| Sajin Vass sends RoR | |
| Sajin de Vass Gunawardena has sent the following Right of Reply; Neither did I have and or pay by Credit Card for such expenses.” NOTE BY NEWS DESK- Why did Mr Sajin Vass Gunawardena not avail himself of the several invitations by the Commission of Inquiry to defend the many accusations levelled at him? |