COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has ordered a corruption investigation at its national carrier, including the controversial termination of a management deal with Emirates airline, the government said Saturday.
President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a five-member panel to investigate the financial transactions of Sri Lankan airlines from 2006 to 2008, when the deal with Emirates was ended, a statement from his office said.
Sri Lankan, founded in 1979 as Air Lanka, was profitable until the government of strongman president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who ran the country from 2005 to 2015, kicked out the Emirates management team.
The deal was canceled in 2008 after Emirates refused to bump fare-paying business class passengers to give the seats to Rajapaksa’s family, who were returning to Colombo from London.
A furious Rajapaksa removed the Emirates-appointed CEO of Sri Lankan from his post and put his brother-in-law, who had no aviation industry experience, in charge of the airline.
Since then, Sri Lankan airlines has sunk into the red, with an estimated loss of more than a billion dollars and debts of $3.2 billion.
Sirisena’s office said he ordered the five-member panel to focus on the “termination of agreements between Sri Lankan airlines and Emirates, including reasons and ramifications thereof.”
Emirates paid $70 million to buy a 43.6 percent stake in Sri Lanka’s national carrier when it was privatised in 1998 and had a contract to fully manage the airline till it was forced to leave.
Emirates’ share of the company was eventually bought by the Sri Lankan government.
A criminal investigation is already underway into the airline’s purchase of new Airbus aircraft at a cost of over two billion dollars during Rajapaksa’s decade in power.
The mounting debt crisis at Sri Lankan airlines has forced the new government to seek international partners to inject capital and manage the airline, but there have been no takers so far.
The move comes amid allegations that Sri Lanka’s new government, which came to power January 2015, has been slow to crack down on corruption under Rajapaksa.
The government last week set up special courts to investigate charges of corruption amounting to billions of dollars under the former regime.
Sri Lanka probes corruption at national carrier
Sri Lanka probes corruption at national carrier
Saudi Absher platform delivers over $5.3bn in annual economic impact
RIYADH: The Saudi government’s Absher digital services platform generates more than SR20 billion ($5.3 billion) in annual economic impact, highlighting the scale of savings created by the Kingdom’s transition from paper-based government procedures to digital services, according to the Ministry of Interior.
Speaking to Al-Eqtisadiah, Bandar bin Mashari, assistant minister of interior for technology affairs, said the savings reflect broader efficiency gains from digitization.
This comes as government services previously delivered through manual, paper-driven processes have moved onto a unified digital platform used by millions of citizens and residents.
“Absher is one of the oldest platforms that has had a direct impact on strengthening the efficiency of spending and in opening new avenues for providing added value services,” said Mashari.
He said the platform’s economic impact is closely linked to the government’s digital transformation agenda, which aims to reduce operational costs while improving service delivery across public agencies.
The assistant minister further stated that the economic impact was at SR17 billion and grew to SR20 billion according to the ministry’s latest data.
He added that Absher has completed a shift in its financial structure, transitioning from direct state capital funding to a sustainable financing model based on self-generated income.
Mashari also said the Ministry of Interior is moving to expand its digital capabilities beyond service delivery, with a focus on security and financial protection.
Authorities are working toward building a secure digital ecosystem designed to combat financial fraud and crime, he said, as digital transactions and online government services continue to expand.
Absher is the flagship digital services platform of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior and one of the Kingdom’s earliest large-scale e-government initiatives.
Launched in 2010, the platform provides citizens, residents, visitors, and businesses with access to hundreds of government services through a unified digital portal and mobile application.
Its services span civil affairs, passports, residency and visa services, as well as traffic and vehicle transactions, and business administration, significantly reducing the need for in-person government visits.
Absher is widely used across the Kingdom, handling millions of electronic transactions each month and serving as a core pillar of Saudi Arabia’s broader digital transformation and Vision 2030 agenda.
