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Udaya fires his PR firm
By Dilmini Samaranayake
Tourist Board chairman Udaya Nanayakkara, embroiled in controversy with a major section of the industry wanting his removal, has fired its public relations company Batey’s 10 months before their contract was due to expire, sources at the Board said.

The company had been served three-months notice this month, but the Tourist Board has already suspended all transactions with the company, the sources said.

Batey’s was on a three-year contract due to expire in December. The termination has taken place on the grounds the company failed to deliver its expected annual output, since it was commissioned by the Tourist Board in 2003.

The Tourist Board was dealt a severe blow when it had to bear the brunt of sponsorship cost for the multi-million rupee WOMAD concert held late last year to win world attention for the flagging industry after the tasunami disaster. Batey's was expected to secure between Rs. 35-40 million in sponsorship but only notched only Rs. 11 million.

The company figured prominently when two of its officials were suspended for issuing an unauthorised press release saying that Mr. Nanayakkara was re-instated as the Chairman of the Tourist Board after President Mahinda Rajapaksa's victory. Tourism Minister Anura Bandaranaike had ordered Ministry Secretary P. Ramanujam to take action against the PR company for this, but the secretary had no powers to deal with the internal disciplinary matters of a private company.

The sources said Mr. Nanayakkara is in the process of setting up his own publicity division at the Board. Recently, President Rajapaksa's Office had requested Minister Bandaranaike to appoint former MP Bennet Cooray to the post of Chairman, but the Minister intervened on behalf of his former brother-in-law, and Mr. Cooray accepted a place on the Board as a director. Several tour operators and hoteliers have asked for the removal of Mr. Nanayakkara, but the Minister has not yet given them an appointment to meet him.

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