Rohantha Authukorale running around to get his tourism Job back 

Oct 26, 2015

When Dr Rohantha Athukorale the so call champion marketer was appointed by Minister Navin Dissanayake after the Yahapalana government came into power it surprised a lot of people.

Because he was a very close ally of Basil Rajapakse. We understand that some strong connection to a Yahapalana minister got him into the important Job as Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion.

Many in the yahapalana movement did not see his appointment very kindly. But he survived and carried on. Every morning Dr Rohantha’s picture would be in the papers. His staff say he would insist that his picture went with every press release. He spent more time promoting himself than Sri Lanka as a tourist location. He travelled widely and spent the money of the bureau. His Director General who had no experience in tourism but in plantations appointed by Hon Navin Dissanayake decided to put a spoke in the wheel of the Chairman.

According to the Tourism Act the Chairman is a non-executive position, but Authorakale tried to act as an executive Chairman, which the Director General resisted. The Chairman then resorted to making allegations against the Director General to Navin Dissanyake, but we understand Navin just ignored his allegations.

With the appointment of the new minister, Dr Authukorale told his staff his position was secure because he was a close friend of the new Minister’s son in law and he would soon get rid of the Director General appointed by Hon Navin Dissanayake. But unfortunately the reversed happened, Authukorale lost his position according to a ex director of the bureau because the Chairman of the Tourism Authority Paddy Vithana and his friends in important positions wanted to see the back of Dr Authukorala, given his poor track record in the Bureau and the EDB.

Dr. Authukorale however was confident he would get his job back once he exposed the alleged financial mismanagement that the Director General was up to, which Hon Navin Dissanayake had ignored. So he sent around a mail that he received from the secretary to the ministry Dr. Sugathadasa to people at the top and his contacts in the media to ensure his rival the Director General was removed from his post.  

We understand in return the Director general had made complaint against Dr Athukorale that he had put many chits and collected a lot of money for his foreign trips, which he had not fully settled.

 It will be good for the new Minister to investigate all these charges that are being traded against each other publicly and remove the bad eggs in the Authority and get on with what has been entrusted, before it is too late for Sri Lanka tourism, given that Maldives has so much political turmoil, Sri Lanka can surely cash in and grow the Lankan tourism market. Sri Lanka's expectation of tourism is certianly huge and save us from our debt crisis. 
 
Source: For Good governance in Sri lanka