Gotabaya responds to remarks by CBK

As a government, all possible measures had been taken to safeguard the transparency in connection with the pact on purchasing fighter jets, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa says.

The observation was made in a statement issued today (15) in respond to several remarks made by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga earlier.

Rajapaksa also stressed that he had never received or accepted money as the former Defence Secretary apart from the salary he obtained and the pension. He also pointed out his bank accounts in Sri Lanka and as well as in abroad would provide evidence that any funds had never been deposited other than the income he mentioned earlier.

He also dismissed allegations that an aircraft had crashed even before it arrived in Sri Lanka as said by the former President, since all fighter jets were brought here in a separate plane and assembled later.

Bandaranaike accused the former government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa of importing substandard weapons and military equipment for three times the actual price.   The former President claimed that all six of the fighter aircraft brought down by former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had crashed. She said that they had spent three times the actual price of the aircraft and that investigations have been launched to figure out what happened to the remaining money. “That is how they engaged in war,” she added.