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Udaya faces the music after drum festival
The Tourist Board’s controversial chairman, Udaya Nanayakkara, is once again in the news -– this time being ordered by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to route all official work through Tourism Ministry Secretary Dr. M Ramanujam, and also facing a payments claim from organizers of the WOMAD festival.

Mr. Nanayakkara – as Tourist Board chief -- has been slapped with a 300,000-Singapore dollar (Rs.18 million) claim from the WOMAD organization for payments due after the recent international festival of drums held in Sri Lanka.
“There is some desperation in the Tourist Board as to how to make these payments,” one source said, adding that on an earlier occasion when the Board was unable to raise enough funds for the project, Tourism Minister Anura Bandaranaike had rejected Mr. Nanayakkara’s request for cabinet approval for special funds to meet the deficit.

The sources said the WOMAD festival, which brought drummers and musicians across many continents to Colombo, was budgeted at Rs 54 million. This was made up of a state contribution of Rs 19 million and the balance (Rs 35 million) from private sponsors.The board, it is learnt, was able to raise only Rs 11 million privately, throwing officials off gear and into a state of desperation. Bateys, the Singapore-based PR agency handling

board affairs, then rejected claims from the board that they had been assigned the task of finding sponsors, saying it was responsible only for the promotion of the event.

Last Monday, President Rajapaksemet Tourism Minister Bandaranaike and Mr. Nanayakkara, at their request, to discuss tourist promotion-related issues. Tourism Secretary Dr Prathap Ramanujam was also present at the meeting on the instructions of the President's office.

After a 90-minute presentation by Mr. Nanayakkara, the latter complained that there were delays at the ministry relating to Tourist Board work. The Tourism Ministry Secretary rejected the claim on delays saying the Ministry was efficient, and was recently picked as the best public sector ministry at the National Productivity Awards. President Rajapaksa said the Ministry secretary was the chief accounting officer and hence all Tourist Board work must be channeled through him.

Regarding Minister Bandaranaike’s request for three months time for a special committee to present their report on the new Tourism Development Authority Act, the President said the report should be submitted in six weeks’ time, but that the minister must first get cabinet approval for it.

Cabinet approval was obtained two days later, and the Minister appointed a three-man committee, headed by former Tourist Board chairman H.M.S. Samaranayake. Industry sources said that this was a mere "delaying tactic" by the Minister to prolong the implementation of the industry-driven Authority that was passed by Parliament after all the necessary committees had already studied it.

Efforts by the tourism and travel industry to ease Mr. Nanayakkara out of office, because of lack of cooperation, have failed. Tourism Minister Bandaranaike ignored a request by the President to appoint former MP Bennet Cooray as chairman. Mr. Nanayakkara was recently re-appointed as chairman with Mr. Cooray accepting an appointment as a member of the board.

The two main industry associations, Sri Lanka Association of In-bound Tour Operators and Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, have asked for an appointment with Minister Bandaranaike since his re-appointment in November last year, but have not been granted one todate. The associations are now seeking an appointment with President Rajapaksa.

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