ISSN: 1391 - 0531
Sunday May 11, 2008
Vol. 42 - No 50
Financial Times  

Public servants told - Travel on SriLankan, Mihin only

By Bandula Sirimanna

Sri Lanka’s public sector officers travelling overseas on official tours have been ordered to travel on SriLankan Airlines or Mihin Lanka with immediate effect, irrespective of the source of financing such travel. A senior official of the Finance Ministry told The Sunday Times FT that this directive was issued to promote the national carrier and Mihin Lanka. He noted that a similar procedure was followed 10 years ago and when Air Ceylon was in operation.

He added that another aim of imposing this restriction was to prevent unauthorized foreign travel of public sector officers. However aviation experts were of the view that a possible reason for this directive issued by Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B.Jayasundera, who is incidentally also SriLankan Airlines Chairman, may be to pump money to maintain SriLankan Airlines and to revive Mihin Lanka the budget airline which has been forced to suspend its operations indefinitely due to lack of passenger planes. Around 800 to 900 public sector officer go overseas annually on official tours. The Finance Ministry official said that strict instructions have been issued to public sector institutions to curtail official foreign tours.

He said the approval of the Ministry Secretary is essential if an officer wants to travel on another airline to a destination not reached by the two state airlines. Jayasundera’s directive also insists that heads of public sector institutions and Secretaries of Ministries must purchase airline tickets and plan air travel through the state-owned BOC Travels (Pvt) Ltd or People’s Travels (Pvt) Ltd. The directive follows a move by SriLankan last week to offer a 25 percent discount on tickets to public servants and their families.

 

Top to the page  |  E-mail  |  views[1]


Reproduction of articles permitted when used without any alterations to contents and a link to the source page.
© Copyright 2008 | Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.Colombo. Sri Lanka. All Rights Reserved.