PIM responds to Prof. Gunapala Nanayakkara and PIM Dubai Centre

Tuesday, 5 November 2013 01:18 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

This is sent on the directive of the Board Management of the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) as Chairman of PIM’s Board of Management as a response to the following paragraph that appeared in the Guest Column in the Daily FT of 21 October 2013. “Sri Lanka’s first initiative to internationalise higher education was deliberately quashed by the education bureaucracy. In 2007, Prof. Gunapala Nanayakkara ventured into setting up the PIM International Education Centre in the UAE to grant higher degrees of a Sri Lankan university and it became a success story in one year. Being typical of Sri Lankan bureaucracy, negative forces of power-hungry, jealous and incompetent people holding positions of power in higher seats of higher education used illegal and immoral methods to discredit the centre. This took place despite the political will at the highest level of Government. 1. The PIM totally denies the contents of the above paragraph which consists of gross misrepresentations and distortions of facts relating to the PIM’s International Centre in Dubai of which Professor Gunapala Nanayakkara was the Managing Director between the period May 2007 to September 2009, when he unexpectedly and unilaterally suspended operations and returned to Colombo. 2. Professor Gunapala Nanayakkara was interdicted by the Council of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura for his alleged financial misappropriation of funds from the Dubai Centre. Prof. Nanayakkara filed legal action in the District Court of Colombo against his interdiction and the District Judge rejected his request for an injunction against the University. Prof. Nanayakkara has since appealed to the Provincial Court of Appeal of Colombo against the District Judge’s decision and that appeal is now pending. In the meanwhile, the Criminal Investigation Department is investigating into the alleged financial misappropriation of funds from the Dubai International Centre of the Postgraduate Institute of Management during the period it was under the management of Professor Gunapala Nanayakkara. In view of the above and since these matters are Sub Judice, the PIM does not feel it right to reply at greater length to the factually incorrect and distorted paragraph in the Daily FT of 21 October 2013. Director Postgraduate Institute of Management University of Sri Jayewardenepura