SriLankan Airlines Airbus deal: Accusations still flying between both sides

The debate on the SriLankan Airlines Airbus deal, held on Thursday (20), again saw both sides trading accusations against each other over their alleged part in a swirling corruption scandal that had already seen the arrest of a former SriLankan Airlines Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and his wife.

Moving the adjournment motion, UNP MP Nalin Bandara said the commission that had been demanded from Airbus to purchase a new fleet of aircraft from the company was over USD 16.84 million. He said only USD 2 million had been traced to an account maintained under former SriLankan CEO Kapila Chandrasena’s wife.

“This begs the question as to what happened to the rest of that bribe money. To whose pockets did it go to?” he asked.

He said the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines at the time was Kapila Chandrasena, CEO was Nishantha Wickremesinghe.

“Nishantha Wickremesinghe is the brother- in- law of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. There are people who are even above Nishantha Wickremesinghe. There is a subject minister as well as the leader of the country. There is no way that the leader of the country could not have known that eight aircraft were being purchased for the national carrier.”

Responding on behalf of the Gover nment, State Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage pointed out that Kapila Chandrasena and his wife were currently in remand custody.

“You are only talking about fraud committed when purchasing the aircraft. Not a word is being said about the losses caused to the State and the commissions obtained when cancelling the Airbus order under your Government. This was done without obtaining advice from the Attorney General. Even the subject minister was in the dark. USD 115 million had to be paid in the first round alone due to the decision to cancel the order. We now have to pay billions. They expected fat commissions by cancelling the order,” he said.

JVP Sunil Handunnetti questioned why the SriLankan Airlines Director Board had met at then Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa’s official residence in Battaramulla on March 1, 2013 to decide on the purchase of the aircraft. The Board Paper on the deal had only been prepared the day before. He further said a SriLankan Director Board COPE meeting had been held until 11.30 a.m. that morning.

“There was plenty of time for them to have this meeting at SriLankan’s conference hall. Why did they go to the Speaker’s residence? Moreover, three members of the Director Board who attended the COPE meeting that day were not present at the former Speaker's house to decide on the aircraft purchase.”

He said Chamal Rajapaksa’s son Shameendra Rajapaksa was also on the airline’s Director Board at the time and had been present at the meeting at the Speaker’s Residence.

The MP noted that the entire deal was finalided within a month and the agreement did not even have a termination clause.

“We didn’t know at the time we prepared our COPE report why there was such haste to finalise this deal, but we now know (after the bribery scandal) why they were so quick to do this.”

UNP MP Eran Wickramaratne urged the Government to take legal action, not just against those who accepted bribes in the deal, but also to sue Airbus seeking damages to recover the amount lost due to the deal.

UNP MP Dr Harsha De Silva questioned how SriLankan, which only had assets worth USD 17 million at the time, entered into a deal that was worth USD 2.8 billion.

“This was the biggest procurement in the airline’s history. Why did it not seek the Attorney General’s advice before going ahead? The agreement did not even have an exit clause,” he said.

Civil Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said they spoke about this deal for the past 4 ½ years, yet the then Government did nothing about it.

“Now, they are trying to pin this on the Rajapaksas, but our information indicates that a section of this USD 16 million bribe went to some of those who held ministerial positions in the previous Government. We think this is why no action was taken,” he said.

“We will give our fullest support to bring all wrongdoers to justice. I have not been pressured by anyone in this case. The entire airline today has been hit with a black mark due to the actions of some of those in its senior management, but as it is our national carrier we must do all that we can to uplift it,” he added.