SriLankan corruption case: CID was grounded for five years

Five long years ago, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was asked by then President Maithripala Sirisena to probe the SriLankan Airlines deal for four Airbus A 350-900 aircraft.

This probe identified those involved in concluding the deal together with six other narrow- bodied aircraft just after the conclusion of the Paris Air Show in June 2013. As the probe got underway, Mr Sirisena also called upon then Public Enter prises

Minister Kabir Hashim to submit a comprehensive report to the Cabinet.

Believe it or not, Mr Hashim observed in his memorandum that though he was the minister in charge, none of the transactions, including the termination deal, had been copied to his Ministry. It began coming in instalments only after his Ministry Secretary had written strong letters to the SriLankan management.

Meanwhile, the CID findings, which were compiled into a report, gathered dust for almost five years with no action being taken, except an application to a Magistrate to confiscate the passports of the suspects. The case came alive only after a British Court heard that an executive of SriLankan and his wife, who allegedly ran an offshore company in Brunei, had received two million US dollars from the Airbus Company and were to receive more funds.

Investigations revealed that the money trail that began in London had gone to Brunei and later unknown sums had ended up in the accounts of persons in Sri Lanka including a sportsman. The sportsman’s funds had come from a bank in Australia to Colombo, according to investigators.

The order to arrest, SriLankan’s onetime Chief Executive Officer ( CEO) Kapila Chandrasena and his wife Nayomali Wijesuriya came from the Attorney General after the finding in the UK Court transpired and received wide publicity. They have now been remanded by Fort Chief Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake until February 19.