Ex-DG of civil aviation deceived Priyankara Jayaratne!

Jan 19, 2017

The FCID and the Bribery Commission have resumed investigations against Priyankara Jayaratne, civil aviation minister in the Rajapaksa regime and the former state minister of local government in the ‘Yahapaalana’ government. The probe relates to his having abused state money, vehicles and fuel. The institution directly involved in this is the Civil Aviation Authority, whose director general H.M. Chandrasena Nimalsiri faces many accusations of corruption and irregularities.

According to what Jayaratne’s side says, he has received many things from the Authority with the proper permission of its DG. Employees of the Authority say he had fulfilled all requests of the minister without hesitation in order to be in his good books. A minister may make many requests from institutions under their control, but the responsibility of the public servant is to understand the real situation and inform the minister about it, and not to betray the institution for personal gain. It is unfortunate that the Authority’s chairman had resorted to this in order to be in the minister’s good books.

The State Audit Department has informed Jayaratne about this on several occasions. Government audit reports have stressed that the official responsible is the DG of the Authority. However, after the ‘Yahapaalana’ government came to power, he had reversed his attitude. He has told the audit and all other committees that Jayaratne had threatened him and other officials of the institution to get his work done. He is citing a complaint lodged at Slave Island police by the Authority’s head of finance at the time, Harischandra. Nimalsiri is publicly saying that he had lodged the complaint with the understanding that things would develop to a situation as of now.

The DG has cunningly trapped Jayaratne after staying near him then to obtain foreign trips, promotions and payments for fake licenses. It is said that he has leaked to several media institutions what he had said and done then to appease the minister. Or else, the possibility is minimal that what the minister had done at the time could get leaked to the media. As employees say, the ex-minister now has to pay for his sins.