Foreign Ministry clarifies…

With reference to our yesterday’s Daily Mirror front page story titled’ ‘Extravagant spending: Bogollagama does it again’, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent the following clarification.   The attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been drawn to the news article titled ‘Extravagant spending: Bogollagama does it again’ published in the Daily Mirror on 04.12.2023 wherein several inaccurate allegations have been made.  

In keeping with the Presidential Secretariat Circular issued earlier this year for Government Officials to travel on economy class on overseas travel, this Ministry and its Missions abroad have acted in strict compliance with the instructions therein and have strictly followed the practice of issuing economy class tickets to officials.

No Business Class tickets have been purchased by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with respect to travel by High Commissioner-designate Mr. Bogollagama.   The UN Ministerial Meeting on Peacekeeping is taking place in Accra, Ghana from 05­  06 December 2023. High Commissioner-designate Rohitha Bogollagama has been designated as a Special Envoy to lead the Sri Lanka delegation to the Ministerial Meeting.  

High Commissioner-designate Mr. Bogollagama will be accompanied to this Meeting by Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the African Union Mr.Theshantha Kumarasiri on instructions by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by a Senior Official of the Ministry of Defence.  

With regard to the travel of Mr. Bogollagama’s spouse to Ghana, this ticket has been purchased using personal funds.   Editor’s Note; The Daily Mirror stands by its story