Sri Lankan Airlines & Weliamuna Report: Prosecution Of Negligent Auditors & Directors?
By Amrit Muttukumaru -April 16, 2015
Amrit Muttukumaru
Large-Scale corruption will continue to thrive so long as professionals – particularly auditors and lawyers (i) are not held accountable (ii) ‘named & shamed’ (iii) punished – for dereliction of duty and wrongdoing. Can any large-scale corruption occur without the complicity of professionals? Are not accountants and auditors the first line of defense against corruption in all entities dealing with financial resources?
This is precisely what is avoided even by purported good governance activists and the media in Sri Lanka. Although they talk the hind legs off a donkey on the evils of corruption, they fail to bite the bullet in regard to ‘naming & shaming’ professionals and bigwigs in the corporate sector.
Based on the Prime Minister’s statement, the J.C. Weliamuna Report into alleged corruption and abuse of power in Sri Lankan Airlines confirms this malady.
The Report which confirms in shocking detail what the discerning public has long suspected appears to have missed the wood for the trees by neglecting to give due attention to the fact that the alleged corruption and abuse of power by Chairman, Nishantha Wickramasinghe, Kapila Chandrasena (CEO) and others took placeunder the watch of the airline’s long standing auditors – Ernst & Young and its Board of Directors which included Messrs. Susantha Ratnayake, Nihal Jayamanne PC, Sunil G Wijesinha, Sanath Ukwatte and Manilal Fernando – many of them also in its Audit Committee – some even as Chairmen!
*Picture courtesy SriLankan Airlines Facebook page
