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(Lanka-e-News-02.June.2014, 5.30PM) Just a day or two after a big high spending bash of Securities Exchange Commission in London to woo Foreigners to invest in Sri Lanka, speculation is rife that SEC Chairman Nalaka Godahewa has decided to quit his job. Without even mentioning a word of it to the SEC Board, Godahewa has submitted an application for appointment to the Post of Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) which is a Full Time job with a modest academic salary. The PIM is Sri Lanka’s best known Postgraduate Institute on Management Established in the 1980’s. It has earned a reputation for awarding the best MBA degrees in the island.
Each year over 250 senior staff of private sector institutions graduate as MBA’s from PIM which is a Fee Paying institution not dependent on Treasury funds.
Former Directors of PIM have been Professor Gunapala Nanayakkara and Professor Uditha Liyanage.
In 2010 an Audit conducted by the prestigious audit firm Ernst & Young found that Professor Nanayakkara had allegedly misappropriated nearly Rs. 50 million from an academic operation of over three years conducted by him as Managing Director on behalf of PIM in Dubai between 2007 to 2009.
A CID investigation against Professor Nanayakkara on this matter is now pending supervised by the Attorney- General’s Department.
Some observers feel that Nalaka Godahewa’s application for Post of Director PIM is a ploy or sham. The truth is that he is being put forward by Professor Nanayakkara who is staging a comeback to PIM from which he has been disbarred since 2010. Godahewa is a former (and loyal) student of Professor Nanayakkara and if appointed Director, PIM
Godahewa is expected to withdraw the CID investigation and “white – wash” Gunapala Nanayakkara’s financial wrongdoing in Dubai and rehabilitate him to PIM.
Many also say that Nalaka Godahewa past conduct has tainted his reputation beyond repair. The most talked about is the so called “KRISH” investment in which Godahewa is alleged to have profited over 500 million. With his very poor “ethical” track record, academics wonder how he had even the “guts” to apply for a prestigious post like Director PIM – which is certainly not a “political appointment!”
Although Harry Jayewardene got Godahewa as CEO of the privatized Insurance Corporation (SLIC) later on he wanted Godahewa out because he was doing private work, (Imperial College) while being on Jayewardene's pay roll.
Next, when SLIC was handed to the state by a Supreme Court decision, Dr. P.B. Jayasundara did not want Godahewa to run it. With some political influence, Godahewa went to the Tourist Board but Dr. P.B. Jayasundara got him out of that as well. It was then that Godahewa “pulled strings” and got the SEC job with all perks and a monthly allowance of Rs. 75,000/- and foreign trips galore. People also question his doctorate and his ability as a speaker is very sub-standard. Without political favour he may remain unemployed because of his bad ethics.
