Sri Lanka: Sirisena’s brother’s “mammoth salary” clips

Sirisena with no shame allowed his family members to bugged the state resources in the name of “Good governance”


The salary of the chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom has been deducted to Rs. 2.5 lakhs as decided by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This is said to be a mass salary deduction compared to the Sri Lanka Telecom chairman's previous salary, reports said. 


Upon establishment of new government, all chairmen of state bodies and corporations were dismissed, however, Mr. Kumarasinghe Sirisena, brother of former President Maithripala Sirisena remained as SLT chairman.

Sirisena's current salary is Rs. 2 million. However, given incentives from subsidiaries to SLT, like Mobitel, his total salary exceeds Rs. 2 million, reports disclosed. He was paid this mammoth salary while holding the top position in the SLT without any knowledge or adequate qualifications on the subject. 

Media reports earlier disclosed that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had promised former President Maithripala Sirisena that his brother's position in the SLT would be unchanged upon the establishment of the new government. 

However, the President has already decided to appoint a person with experience and qualifications complying to the position, for which he has instructed the committee appointed to select state heads to look into the matter, given recent disclosures by sources.