EXCLUSIVE: Gota implicated in aircraft deal: report

By our Political Correspondent-April 5, 2015

The latest investigation into corruption at Sri Lankan airline has expanded beyond the $2.3 billion Airbus deal and extended to the purchase of two passenger planes from China violating all norms of civilian safety rules.

The Weliamuna investigation into Sri Lankan airline found not only corruption, but institutional cover up, criminal negligence and gross neglect of safety in allowing Chinese planes to operate without safety clearance.

Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse had initiated the purchase of six MA-60 aircraft in 2008, but the proposal was surreptitiously made through the civil aviation ministry to dodge financing conditions of ExIm bank of China.

Gotabhaya wanted to acquire the aircraft for the Air Force, but the ExIm Bank could not finance a military purchase hence an elaborate deception was made to look like the aircraft were needed for Mihin Lanka.

Colombo Mirror can reveal that investigators have found horridly prepared feasibility studies justifying the purchase of MA-60 aircraft which did not meet even the Sri Lankan safety standards.

Sri Lankan airlines Chief Executive Officer, Kapila Chandrasena, who resigned last month when the Weliamuna interim report called for his sacking and prosecution for corruption and criminal mismanagement of the airline, was CEO of Mihin Lanka when the initial deal was discussed.

However, during close interrogation, Kapila Chandrasena, whose misconduct with at least one airhostesses (who has now left Sri Lankan to join Emirates) is also under investigation, denied he was involved.

The Weliamuna report has been given to Sri Lankan chairman, Ajith Dias,  who has a business relationship with an individual closely related to Kapila Chandrasena. Dias and former cricket star Aravinda de Silva are business partners. De Silva’s sister-in-law is married to Chandrasena’s whose bank account in a Middle East bank is also under investigation, but Dias had been reluctant to act against Chandrasena despite detailed accounts of his corruption.

Chandrasena told investigators that the MA 60 “aircraft were for the air force and not for Mihin Lanka and acquisition arrangements were made entirely by the Ministry of Ports and Aviation” with help from the air force.

“The purported recording of this acquisition under Mihin Lanka in the budget estimates of the Ministry was merely to align the purchase with the conditionality relevant to the foreign funding (from ExIm Bank of China) arranged, which facility does not allow financing of supplies for the armed services.”

Mihin Lanka and the Aviation minister who was working at the behest of Gatabhaya Rajapaksa had not only violated Sri Lankan laws, but also tried to deceive the Chinese bank and international aviation regulators.

Kapila Chandrasena went as far as to put down in writing in November 2009 that the MA 60 planes to operate to regional routes to India and the Maldives although neither destination allowed this type of aircraft into their airports.

The MA60 aircraft cannot be operated by any civilian company in Sri Lanka either.

This is when Gotabhaya Rajapaksa by way of a directive to the secretary and chief accountant of the Civil Aviation ministry to transfer the two aircraft to the Sri Lankan air force in December 2011, two months after the Air Force actually took delivery of the planes and proudly announced that “these aircraft will be put to good use in meeting the ever growing need for air travel in the region.”

The website of the Director General of Civil Aviation Sri Lanka lists the two MA60 aircraft as “civil aircraft registered in Sri Lanka,” but it is not clear how they were allowed to fly passenger services.

The information provided by Kapila Chandrasena proved that he was misinforming the investigation panel, with most of his evidence being contradicted by other written evidence, the Weliamuna report said.

The Board of Inquiry recommend that similar to the $ 2.3 billion Airbus deal, the MA-60 purchase too should be “investigated for criminal liability,” which means the arresting of Gotabhaya, among others.

The air force took delivery of the planes in September 2011.