The Prodigal Daughter?
by Nirmala Kannangara-
Monday, May 16, 2016
Director General, Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) continues to be in the public eye, aligning himself as he does, with successive governments in order to safeguard his position. This is despite the numerous malpractices he has allegedly been involved in over the years.
It is surprising indeed that the good governance administration which came into power 17 months ago promising to take action against all state officials who misappropriate public funds and give relief to the general public, has so far failed to take action against CAASL which continuous to be a den of corruption. Despite the assurances given, the present government too has allowed the same old shady state officials to continue in corruption and in some instances given them more facilities to misappropriate public funds in the guise of providing ‘better services’ to the industry.
Following our continuous exposes on alleged malpractices taking place at the CAASL, it has now been revealed how its Director General had allegedly hoodwinked the Department of Management Services of the General Treasury during the latter part of the previous regime to get a new post created at the Authority specially for the then subject minister’s offspring. This he saw as a means by which he could gain immunity from being investigated for the malpractices he was engaged in, at the expense of public money.
In order to safeguard his position at CAASL and to be in the good books of the then Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne, Director General H.M.C. Nimalsiri allegedly deceived the Department of Management Services in order to get the minister’s daughter, Sachini Nayanathara Jayaratne, employed at CAASL as the International Relationship Officer. The latter did not possess any prerequisite qualifications nor the basic qualification CAASL looked for, to hold such a responsible position. Nimalsiri had got the Jayaratne sibling recruited without following the scheme of recruitment (SOR).
Although there wasn’t any need for such a post to be created at CAASL, Nimalsiri and the then Ministry Secretary had showed undue urgency to recruit an International Relationship Officer at Civil Aviation to facilitate bilateral agreements with foreign airlines.
“Nimalsiri showed the importance of having an International Relationship Officer at Civil Aviation and got the post approved by the Management Services Department although such a post was not necessary for CAASL. Such a post could only be necessary to Sri Lankan Airlines, our national career, which always holds bilateral negotiations with foreign airlines and finalises bilateral agreements which is not the subject of the Civil Aviation Authority. The sole responsibility of the Civil Aviation Authority is to monitor the air safety standards but not to facilitate bilateral agreements or any other work related to the national carrier. It is the national carrier that drafts bilateral agreements and sends these for approval by the Attorney General before the agreement is signed. In such a backdrop, what made Nimalsiri and the then Ministry Secretary mislead the Department of Management Services seeking its approval for a post that is not relevant to this Authority?” reliable CAASL sources who wished to remain anonymous told The Sunday Leader.
All attempts to get a comment from the Department of Management Services to find out as to why approval was granted for a post that was not required for CAASL and what action they could take against Nimalsiri for deceiving them, failed as none of the officials wished to make any comment.
However, although Nimalsiri showed urgency to get the International Relationship Officer’s services for CAASL, it is surprising indeed how flexible the CAASL Director General was as he allowed the selected candidate to discharge the duties of the post from home without reporting for duty even for few minutes. There are no records at CAASL to show that the International Relationship Officer has attended any of the bilateral negotiations that had taken place during her tenure from December 1, 2013 until the fall of the previous regime,” the sources claimed.
According to the sources, although CAASL’s request was to create two posts for the said position, the Department of Management Services through circular no: 30(1) had given approval only to have one post under MA3-2016A salary scale.
“According to the circular, although the recruitment and promotions should be carried out according to the scheme of recruitment, the Civil Aviation Authority had disregarded the recruitment instructions given by the Department of Management Services but recruited the candidate of their wish without following the scheme of recruitment,” sources alleged.
There is speculation as to why Nimalsiri wanted to create two International Relationship Officer posts although there wasn’t need even for one post at CAASL
“What Nimalsiri would have wanted was to employ a qualified candidate together with the minister’s daughter and get the work from the qualified candidate, so no one would know that she was not competent to discharge her duties. Failing to get two posts created, Nimalsiri had no other option but to offer the job to the minister’s offspring,” sources added.
Meanwhile, the government audit report states how CAASL failed to follow the scheme of recruitment and obtained only one application which was from Sachini Nayanathara Jayaratne, daughter of the subject minister, on November 18, 2013 and interviewed her on the same day and was recruited on casual basis from December 1, 2013, two weeks before the Department of Management Services granted their approval.
“Although Nimalsiri made the request to the Department of Management Services to create the post of International Relationship Officer, this post has to be created for the national carrier as it is the national carrier and not the Civil Aviation Department that signs bilateral agreements with other airlines. Nimalsiri got the approval to create such a post on December 13, 2013; however CAASL Board meeting records shows that the Board of Directors had given their approval for Nimalsiri’s request for this post at their 98th Board Meeting held on October 10, 2013,” sources alleged.
According to the sources, although the selected candidate should be conversant in aviation law, Jayaratne junior did not have any qualification in aviation law but merely a foreign degree in Human Resources Management and had not followed any course in international affairs.
“All those who are recruited to CAASL cardre should possess a credit pass in mathematics but in Jayaratne’s case she had only an ordinary pass for mathematics,” sources claimed.
Although Nimalsiri urgently wanted to get the post in question created with the Management Services Department’s approval and got the post filled with the minister’s daughter, on the request of Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne, the CAASL’s International Relationship Officer was positioned to the Civil Aviation Ministry on December 23, 2013.
“After this employees was positioned at the ministry well before one month from the time she was hurriedly recruited, Nimalsiri did not take any action to fill the much needed vacant post. Since then thirty months had passed but Nimalsiri’s failure to appoint another International Relationship Officer to handle bilateral negotiations or agreements of the CAASL clearly shows that there was no necessity to get such a post created. Nimasiri purposely duped the higher officials at the Department of Management Services to get personal benefits from the then Aviation Minister,” sources alleged.
According to the audit report Ref. No: AVA/ A/ CAASL/ 2016/ 02 dated March 23, 2016, this International Relationship Officer had not carried out a single day’s work since she was recruited on December 1, 2013 and there was no proof that she had ever reported for duty according to the attendance registry. However, from December 1, 2013 up to December 31, 2014, she had been paid Rs. 609,560 as her remuneration for thirteen months by CAASL. Although she had been recruited as a casual worker for a basic salary of Rs. 15,600 plus allowances she had also fraudulently been paid a travelling allowance of Rs. 20,000 by the Civil Aviation Authority.
The report has also revealed how the Civil Aviation Ministry Additional Secretary R.M.P.S. Ratnayake had given this employee a separate attendance book to mark her daily attendance although she has had to sign her attendance in the company registry.
“Since she was not attached to the minister’s personal staff, she too had to mark her attendance like the other employees, but since there wasn’t a need for her to report for duty neither Nimalsiri nor the Ministry Additional Secretary wanted her to mark her attendance in the common registry but in a special ‘book’ which was in her possession,” sources alleged.
All attempts to contact Director General Civil Aviation Authority, H.M.C. Nimalsiri failed as he did not answer our calls.
Although a text message was sent on Thursday requesting Nimalsiri’s comment as to why he duped the Department of Management Services to employee the minister’s offspring, Nimalsiri had not responded to the message at the time of going to press.
