SPOTLIGHT

•  Abuse of power at AASSL

 Guess who came to dinner?

By Frederica Jansz 

Not even 21 days since being appointed to office, both the Managing Director and Chairman of Airport and Aviation Services Sri Lanka Limited (AASSL) are plundering staff and resources attached to AASSL, for personal gain.

Some two dozen staff at AASSL were last week prevented from performing their official functions and instead delegated to clean, paint and polish the private residence of the new Managing Director of AASSL, Shalitha Wijeysundera while other staff at AASSL were removed from work to go on a private trip with the new Chairman, M. L. M. Hizbullah.

Shalitha Wijeysundera, was appointed as Managing Director, AASSL on May 20, this year together with M. L. M. Hizbullah, former MP for the National Unity Alliance and now member of the coalition alliance, as Chairman, AASSL.

Compensated for defeat

Both Wijeysundera and Hizbullah are Freedom Alliance members who contested the April 2nd, general election but failed to secure an electoral seat. Both were subsequently compensated for their defeat By President Chandrika Kumaratunga who defied opposition from the JVP and appointed the two defeated candidates to the AASSL.

It is no secret within the Wijeysundera family that Shalitha Wijeysundera contested on the UPFA ticket in April this year in order to ensure he would draw some advantage over a long drawn out family battle involving property belonging to the late Upali Wijeywardena.

The President, family sources revealed, has in fact promised Shalitha Wijeysundera that she will help him with regard to this case which is now in its final stages and being heard before the Supreme Court.

Shalitha Wijeysundera last week galvanised staff at the AASSL into painting and polishing his house at 111, Fifth Lane, Colpetty. They not only painted and polished but even laid tar on his driveway. The frenzy of action to spruce up his family home was after President Chandrika Kumaratunga accepted an invitation to dinner for Wednesday, June 9. The family home is where the late Prof. Stanley Wijeysundera resided, father to Shalitha. Prof. Wijeysundera was shot dead during the terror reign of the 1980's by JVP militants.

Having barely yet warmed his seat at the AASSL, Shalitha Wijeysundera began his first assignment by getting 13 labourers employed at the AASSL to lay tar on his driveway at his Fifth Lane residence. They then painted his home. The Civil Engineering Department at the AASSL having received instructions from Wijeysundera to supervise this whole operation were all on standby last week for 'operation spring clean.'

None other than Chief Civil Engineer Maintenance, D. N. A. Jayamaha, supervised the entire operation releasing the labourers who were initially supervised by Jayamaha's junior technical officer, S. S. Munasinghe.

Funds released

The spring cleaning exercise continued throughout last week and on Tuesday, June 8, Wijeysundera got more AASSL staff to supervise the cutting and polishing of his floors. Jayamaha released Rs.7,000 from AASSL funds to these cleaners to purchase tins of wax to be used on Wijeysundera's floors at home.

On Tuesday, a red AASSL pick-up vehicle bearing registration number 61-4583 transported workers to and from Wijeysundera's home at Colpetty. Six professional polishers from Abans Cleaning Service were transported in this vehicle to Wijeysundera's home at 11 a.m. on Tuesday to cut and polish his terrazzo floors.

No less than four official vehicles belonging to the AASSL including a truck and vans were used over a period of five days to transport personnel and other resources from the AASSL offices at Katunayake to Wijeysundera's home at Colpetty.

AASSL vehicles bearing registration numbers GT-6040, HZ-3429 and 253-7313 were also deployed and AASSL drivers Wijeykoon, Jayasiri, Gunasekera and Dias drove to and from Shalitha Wijeysundera's home in Colombo to Katunayake following the new Managing Director's orders for a complete spring clean of his private residence before the Wednesday night function.

On Wednesday the 9th, official work at the Civil Engineering Department at the AASSL came to an almost complete halt and more employees were removed from performing their official duties in order to spruce up Wijeysundera's home.

'Operation spring-clean' continued from 8 a.m. on Wednesday and ended only at 11 p.m. that night. At 8 a.m. another three employees of the AASSL were sent to Wijeysundera's home to finish off more paint work and were supervised by Thilanga Badewella, another junior technical officer at AASSL working under Jayamaha. Badewella and the other three employees arrived at Wijeysundera's home on Wednesday morning in a vehicle belonging to the AASSL bearing registration number 253-7313. Subsequently another four junior technical officers were deployed from the AASSL laden with fairy lights to light up Wijeysundera's garden. The lights too belong to the AASSL.

Another vehicle driven by an AASSL driver, Dias in a log entry at the AASSL has entered a record stating that he left the AASSL at 8 a.m. on Wednesday the 9th and arrived back at the office only at 3.15 p.m. Beneath the caption 'Full Description of Trip' Dias who has signed the log report has stated in Sinhala "to carry out official work at the M.D's house." (See box for copy of log entry)

Women staff

In addition, 10 women employed at the Airport Aviation Authority were ordered to report to Wijeysundera's home that night to help out with the dinner service. Their names are Chamila Abeysekera, H. W. A. Kavitha, Priyanka Wijesekera, Dilrukshi Perera, R. R. V. Lenora, Y. Y. Perera, D. C. Dissanayake, W. S. S. W. Perera, R. G. Geethanjalie and W. A. D. Malkanthi.

The 10 women had been asked by Manager at AASSL, I. M. Razeek to report to Wijeysundera's home that night wearing civvies but the girls had refused and reported wearing their official blue uniform saris. Their work had ended at around 11 p.m. and six out of the 10 girls have applied for overtime pay from AASSL.

A work roster, a copy of which we reproduce today shows how these 10 girls were taken out of the roster at the AASSL away from official duties and instead deployed to Wijeysundera's home last Wednesday the 9th, while some of them had even taken duty leave in order to play the role of housekeeper and waitress at his party. (See box)

They were transported to Wijeysundera's home in another AASSL vehicle bearing registration number GQ-3344.

Confirmation

And from AASSL itself, Senior Civil Engineer, A. I. B. Karunaratne, who functions as a deputy to Jayamaha, focused all his attention last week on coordinating the release of AASSL staff to Wijeysundera's home for the purpose of giving it a spiff and polish.

A phone call to Karunaratne last week confirmed that indeed AASSL employees were being used to spruce-up Shalitha WIjeysundera's home all at state expense. Pretending we were calling from Wijeysundera's house, Karunaratne confirmed that indeed staff had been released from their official duties at AASSL to paint and polish the home of the new Managing Director. He said on Wednesday morning. "We sent three more men at 8 a.m. today to finish the painting and they are being supervised by Thilanga Badewella."

The paint and polish job of Wijeysundera's home required not just labourers and cleaning staff but also no less than six technical officers as well who though trained for civil engineering duties at the airport were instead deployed to perform as housekeepers at Wijeysundera's house, for five days, neglecting their official work.

D. N. A. Jayamaha and his junior technical officer S. S. Munasinghe on Wednesday did not even report to work and when we checked, had taken leave of their official duties to supervise the cleaning of Shalitha Wijeysundera's Fifth Lane residence.

In addition to the fairy lights from AASSL, special tents were also put up in the garden area.

President Kumaratunga was given a red carpet welcome when she arrived at around 11 p.m. The red carpet too was courtesy of AASSL. A special area was created for her and she stayed until 2.30 a.m. being among the last to leave the venue.

The guest list of about 200 included mostly members of the business community as well as Wijeysundera's supporters from the Biyagama electorate. The only other politicians present were Mangala Samaraweera and Mervyn Silva.

Indonesian food was served to guests from the city's latest Indonesian restaurant - Bali, which is owned by Shalitha Wijesundera's brother Rohan. The casino, Star Dust provided the liquor and plenty of spirits flowed as the evening advanced. At one point the party ran out of food and more was hurriedly transported from the Bali.

Chairman on a trip 

The matter does not end at that. We have found that not only Wijeysundera but Chairman, AASSL, Hizbullah also in similar vein to his MD is obviously on a bandwagon at state expense, in a bid to milk to the maximum the fruits of their illgotten gains.

On June 4, 5, and 6, Hizbullah made a private trip to his hometown Batticaloa taking with him staff from the AASSL namely, Senanayake, Ekanayake and Quintus from the Media Unit together with a digital video camera, six cassettes and 15 photographic reels all at the expense of the AASSL. For this trip he also used a vehicle belonging to the AASSL bearing registration number GQ 7308 together with an AASSL driver Christopillai. After the trip 500 photographs were developed at the expense of AASSL almost all carrying pictures of Hizbullah in various different poses.

All this while even ceilings in certain sections of the airport are collapsing for want of repair. As the saying goes, 'nava gilunath band choon.'  

Work roster of the 10 girls from AASSL                            Driver Dias’ log entry

By Frederica Jansz

Deputy Minister of Highways and People's Alliance Member of Parliament, T.B. Ekanayake was caught at an infamous brothel housed at Liberty Plaza on Wednesday, June 9, at 3 a.m. sharing a drink with the 'Madame' of the brothel, who we will refer to as 'R.P.'

A raid conducted by the Colombo Police Crimes Division caught the Deputy Minister inside apartment 8/11 at the Liberty Plaza together with two other men, one Tusitha Ekanayake and another man hailing from Kirulapone.

All three men were caught by the cops at 3 a.m. sharing a drink with R.P. and when the cops struck, got very agitated and allegedly tried to make a hurried getaway. The police swoop caught eight local girls in compromising positions at the apartment. All eight were placed in remand custody together with the Madame, R.P. There were also two Russian women in apartment 8/10 but they were not arrested as they were not caught in the act.

Undercover cops from the Colombo Crime Bureau in mufti had arrived at the Liberty Plaza and paid a sum of Rs. 7,000 via a three wheeler driver, which is the going rate for a girl at this brothel for two hours of sex. The modus operandi is via the three wheeler driver and the cops made their way into the apartment pretending they wanted a girl for two hours.

The moment the policemen in twos gained entry into the apartments, they had signalled to other cops who waited downstairs to join them and a full-scale raid was launched. The raid was carried out after having secured a court order from the Fort Magistrate.

The brothel is well known for its functions and operates from three apartments at Liberty Plaza with apartments 8/10 and 8/11 on the eighth floor sharing a common passageway leading one into the other and another apartment is also used for sex services on the third floor. The place has been repeatedly raided by police over the last 10 to 15 years although it has continued to function despite the raids.

During this raid, the cops came upon three men sharing drinks with the 'Madame' of the brothel. The cops insisted the men produce their identity cards but they had refused to do so, saying that since the girls had been rounded up there was no reason for them to reveal who they were.

But the police had insisted and with much reluctance one of the three finally produced his card. The gentleman hails from Kirulapone. The police had demanded that the other two also produce their IDs. One of the two finally did so, and identified himself as one Tusitha Ekanayake, a relation of a politician from the North Central Province.

The other however refused to show his ID and attempted to make a getaway, but Sub Inspector Janaka Silva in the police party pulled the man by his shirt collar, dragged him to another room and yelled at him that he wanted to see his ID immediately. It was only then the man had sheepishly admitted that he was Deputy Highways Minister, T. B. Ekanayake, a post second to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse who is the Minister for Highways.

His identity card when produced, also identified him to be T. B. Ekanayake and the cop, though worried that the discovery would lead to trouble from high-ups, made an entry in his notebook that the Deputy Minister for Highways was among those caught at the brothel at Liberty Plaza during the pre-dawn police raid last Wednesday. But given Ekanayake's presence, all three were allianced to leave.

The Madame when making her statement said that T. B. Ekanayake was "a personal friend" and had merely arrived at her invitation to share a drink with her. She could not explain why he was doing so at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m. on a Wednesday.

In light of the Rauf Hakeem - Kumari Cooray case, here is another scenario for media bosses under the patronage of President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the Freedom Alliance government to in similar vein, go public with-the steamy details of Ekanayake's after dusk preferences. Over to you, the state media!