These expenses were incurred by SriLankan Airlines as the deportee cost, which the airline has to bear for the return of passengers who are turned back from their destinations, Senior Manager, Group Assurance and Advisory Services of SriLankan Airlines Mahesh Nanayakkara revealed before the Commission.
According to his testimony, most of these passengers had been turned back from their destinations as they failed to possess proper documentations for their journey. If the document checkers and the staff at the Check-in Counters at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake managed to detect these shortcomings prior to departure,SriLankan would not have had to bear these expenses.
SriLankan Airlines had spent Rs.120 million including the ticket cost of Rs.89.6 million in 2017/18 financial year, Rs.49.5 million as ticket cost in 2016/17 and Rs.37 million as ticket cost in 2016/17 for the deportee cost.
Prior to that, these tasks were carried out by the country’s budget airline, Mihin Lanka Pvt. Ltd. However, the situation became worse after its closure in 2016 due to the losses incurred by Mihin.
In 2015, there has been a forensic audit on the increasing number of inadmissible persons and it had indicated that there is a clear issue relating to the inadmissible persons.
However, it was also revealed that the Internal Audit Department of SriLankan Airlines had not conducted regular audits into the functions of the investigation department of the airlines, under which the document checkers perform their duties.
Senior Manager Nanayakkara also apprised the Commission of the difficulties faced by his department in conducting the internal audits due to the less number of staff which is only 14.
“Therefore, they often seek the assistance from external audit firms and Interns from the universities,” he said. Senior State Council Fazly Razik led evidence yesterday.
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