Lavish spending habits of Fmr. SriLankan Airlines Chairman

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The Lavish expenses of Former Chairman of SriLankan Airlines Nishantha Wickremesinghe was exposed at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry today (July 11). Former Chairman of SriLankan Airlines Nishantha Wickremesinghe had billed the airline Rs. 7.726mn from 2008 to 2015 as sales related pax cost. That is around three tonnes of excess baggage cost that has been waived off which is equal to 36 average human beings. For the financial year 2013 to 2014, the basic salary for the Chairman's Staff was documented as Rs. 3,812,000. The Chairman's staff includes the secretary to the Chairman and the Executive Secretary (excluding the drivers) In addition, Former SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickremesinghe had two drivers who were working almost 24 hours of the day. This was revealed when their overtime allowances which exceeded almost Rs. 100,000 a month was placed as evidence before the Commission. According to documentation, the Cost of Duty Travel overseas by Nishantha Wickremesinghe from 2014 to 2015 had cost the airlines  Rs. 9,028,000. For comparison, an economy class trip to Singapore costs only around Rs 30,000. With such a cost Nishantha Wickremesinghe could have made 300 trips to Singapore that year.