Investigators from the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption have recorded a statement from Dr. P.B. Jayasundara in connection with the SriLankan Airlines Airbus procurement investigation, Hiru News reported.
A team of investigating officers visited Jayasundara’s private residence and spent close to four hours taking the statement.
Jayasundara served as Secretary to the President and, earlier, as Secretary to the Ministry of Finance — the two posts that placed him at the centre of government financial approvals across successive administrations.
Where this sits in the case
The Airbus investigation concerns commissions paid around SriLankan Airlines’ purchase of aircraft from the European manufacturer, and it has become the largest active corruption file in the country. It has run through most of this year:
- Former SriLankan Airlines chief executive Kapila Chandrasena was remanded in April and granted bail in May; after that bail was revoked and a warrant issued, he was found dead at a Colpetty residence on 8 May, in a death police said was suspected to be suicide.
- Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former aviation minister Piyankara Jayaratne were summoned to the Commission in May, and both gave statements.
- Chamal Rajapaksa gave a statement in September.
- Namal Rajapaksa was arrested on 4 September and remains in remand. He was granted bail on 30 September in the Criminal Investigation Department’s money laundering file before the Fort Magistrate’s Court, but stays in custody in the separate bribery case before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court until 13 October.
- Former cricket captain Aravinda de Silva and his wife lost Rs. 40 million on 30 September, when the Fort Magistrate’s Court forfeited bail they had posted as sureties for a suspect who left the country and did not return.
Recording a statement is an investigative step and does not imply that the person questioned is a suspect. Hiru did not report what Jayasundara was asked, what period the questions covered, or whether the Commission intends to call him again.
Update: the dates that make him relevant
A later report puts the residence at Nikaweratiya and dates his two postings precisely, Newswire reported.
Jayasundara was Secretary to the Treasury and the Ministry of Finance from September 2009 until January 2015 — the window that covers the SriLankan Airlines Airbus transactions under investigation, and the reason the Commission has approached him. He later served as Secretary to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from 2019 until 2022, a separate and later period.
That first span places him at the Treasury for the duration of the procurement at issue, and across the period in which former SriLankan Airlines chief executive Kapila Chandrasena and the aviation ministry of the day made the decisions now being examined.
Newswire is an aggregator rather than an originating newsroom, so the story remains single-sourced to Hiru among verified outlets. Ada Derana has also carried an account, but its site returned a CloudFront block and could not be verified for sourcing.
