The government had to pay USD 800,000 monthly as penalty due to a fraudulent Airbus deal under previous administrations, Leader of the House and Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Bimal Rathnayake told Parliament yesterday.
Minister Rathnayake explained that the fraudulent activities occurred during the tenures of both the Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe governments.
“The Rajapaksa regime was involved in the fraud related to the purchase of the Airbus aircraft, and later senior officials from the Wickremesinghe government misappropriated funds in an attempt to cancel the agreement,” he said.
The Minister revealed that the government had leased a new Airbus aircraft from France, for which it is paying USD 275,000 per month. However, he pointed out that an additional USD 800,000 had to be paid monthly for the aircraft that had not been delivered.
“We are now paying three times the cost of a single aircraft, all because of the fraudulent activities carried out by the previous administrations. This is the reality we are currently dealing with,” Minister Rathnayake said.
The Minister made the comments while announcing the arrival of the new Airbus A330-200, the first wide-body aircraft to be added to Sri Lanka’s fleet in eight years.
by Saman Indrajith 