SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo International) majority shareholder, the Sri Lankan government, says it will launch a full investigation into the carrier's 2013 decision to acquire four Airbus A350-900s and six A330-300s from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) at a cost of USD2.3 billion.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office said in a statement that an inquiry into the airline's operations, undertaken by a four member committee headed by a lawyer J.C Weliamuna, had uncovered several instances of gross irregularities which warranted criminal prosecutions against former executives.
“The former government of president Rajapaksa made management changes to carry out a re-fleeting of the airline with brand-new aircraft costing USD2.3 billion despite the availability of more cost effective alternatives,” the statement said adding that a full investigation of the refleeting tender should also be carried out.
The investigation says it found damning evidence implicating the carrier's former chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe and former CEO Kapila Chandrasena in irregular deals which also warranted criminal proceedings. According to Reuters, Wickremasinghe resigned as the airline's chairman shortly after Rajapaksa, who had been Sri Lankan president for 10 years, was defeated in a January election by Maithripala Sirisena.
The report also claims airline management knowingly ignored any conflict of interest in awarding procurement contracts to companies and individuals associated with the carrier 'leading to a reasonable assumption that they were all corrupt deals.'
Other allegations pertain to the illegal use of company funds to hire sports cars, hush-ups of serious air incidents, and the recruitment of underqualified individuals on management's direction.
Earlier this year, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said SriLankan had generated LKR100 billion (USD755.8 million) in losses since 2010 while sister carrier Mihin Lanka (Colombo International) had garnered LKR15 billion (USD113.37 million) in losses for the same period.
Since his election in January, President Maithripala Sirisena has rolled back a number of directives issued by his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa including an order for a new USD16 million VIP business jet.
