The Saroja-Ravinatha Saga Part-3: Duo Commits Outright Fraud In Air Ticket Purchase

JUNE 5, 2020

Previously Colombo Telegraph exposed a series of irregular and prima facie fraudulent financial transactions by Foreign Ministry’s Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha and Sri Lanka’s current Ambassador to London, Saroja Sirisena. We now have further evidence of the duos fraudulent ‘cooking of books’ while Sirisena was Ambassador to Vienna which has cost the Sri Lankan tax payers an arm and a leg.

Ravinatha Aryasinha and Saroja Sirisena | File photo

Previously Colombo Telegraph exposed how Aryasinha approved in a highly irregular manner an elective surgery for Sirisena in the USA for the cost of 66,284.65 US dollars. Aryasinha also approved a exuberant amount of EUR 3152, supposedly for an ‘economy class’ ticket between Vienna, Austria and Salt lake City USA.

Now Colombo Telegraph is in a position to reveal that this was done in an absolute fraudulent manner by both Aryasinha and Sirisena by presenting fake quotations for the air ticket.

On August 16, 2019 Aryasinha had given a blanket approval for the purchase of an economy class ticket. Sirisena rather than sending three quotations for the cheapest tickets available had manipulated the ticket prices to show a higher cost for the ticket.

Colombo Telegraph is in possession of the quotations obtained by the Sri Lanka Embassy staff in Vienna on behalf of Sirisena. The first quotation on Delta Airlines / KLM travelling between Vienna and Salt Lake City on 27th August and 7th September was priced at EUR 1,299 return. The Second quotation on Delta/ Air France to fly on 27th August and 6th September was priced at EUR 1,293 return. A third quotation on Austrian Airlines for flights on 27th August and 8th September was priced at EUR 1676 return.

These three quotations were on full fare economy class and therefore is not even the lowest possible airfare. However even such a highly priced economy class ticket could have been purchased at EUR 1,293 to travel on the dates desired by Ambassador Sirisena.

However instead of sending these three quotations to Colombo, Sirisena has instructed the Embassy staff to obtain a screenshot of a web search which showed a ticket which had cost over EUR 3000. Aryasinha by a fax dated 23rd August 2019 has granted Sirisena approval to purchase an ‘economy class ticket’ for the cost of Euro 3152. Therefore when a ticket was available for EUR 1,293 Aryasinha has readily approved the purchase of a ticket for EUR 3152.

Aryasinha who had served for over ten years in Brussels and Geneva in recent years cannot be ignorant of an average price of an economy class ticket from a key European capital to the United States. Even the prices in the three quotations are on the high end for an economy class ticket which average around EUR 1,000 or less during August which is not a peak season for travel between Europe and the USA. Rather it seems both Aryasinha and Sirisena deliberately misrepresented the cost of the air ticket, as the records of the quotations obtained by the Embassy clearly shows. A proper investigation, if ever carried out will show if this was deliberately done by the duo for Sirisena to travel on business class while having approval for an economy class ticket or even a more sinister objective of defrauding public money for their own enrichment. Either way this evidence itself would suffice to call for a criminal investigation into both these officers. As President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has just announced a task force to build a ‘virtuous and disciplined society’ it would be interesting to see if that work starts closer to home.

With regard to the medical procedure for Sirisena that cost Sri Lankan tax payers USD 66, 285. Colombo Telegraph has now reliably learnt that Sirisena had the option of doing this procedure in Austria. The Embassy had in fact obtained an appointment for her with one of the best ophthalmologists in Austria. She had visited this doctor once to obtain a ‘certificate’ stating that she needs to undergo surgery. However she made the embassy officials cancel the second appointment and insisted that this elective procedure needs to be done in the USA. If this procedure was done in Austria it would have saved the Sri Lankan tax payers this large sum of money. Further Sirisena’s current husband is a UK citizen and a doctor by profession. As his spouse, Sirisiena would have benefited from that status in Austria, as a fellow EU country or had this procedure done free of charge in the NHS of the UK.

Colombo Telegraph is aware of the type of medical procedure performed on Sirisena. While it is not necessary to reveal details since it is a private matter, Colombo Telegraph can confirm it was a benign, non-essential, non-emergency requirement.

Notwithstanding the technicalities of the procedure, the manner in which she has sought approval and how it had been granted by Aryasinha are bizarre and extremely irregular.

An officer familiar with foreign ministry said that the normal procedure is for a fax to be sent to the attention of the Director General of the Human Resources and Mission Management Division. On receiving such a request the Director General would study the matter to determine of its feasibility in line with the Financial Regulations of the Government, Public Administration and Foreign Ministry Circulars and the circumstances of the case. Some of the aspects the DG/ HR & MM would observe are; if the medical procedure is an emergency, a medical necessity or an elective one, whether the procedure has been recommended by a doctor who is in the panel approved by the Ministry and whether the procedure is to be carried out by such an approved medical personnel.

As the Ministry circulars instructs even serious conditions such as bypass surgery, kidney transplants and ‘laser beam treatment,’ will not be considered for reimbursement.

See below for the Ministry circulars governing medical expenditure:

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