SriLankan Airlines last week said that 102 metric tonnes of “printed material” airlifted to Entebbe in February 2021 were Ugandan currency notes sent as cargo as an order of “a global security printer who operates several factories worldwide, including one in Sri Lanka, exporting to global markets”.
The Sunday Times exclusively broke the story regarding the Entebbe-bound cargo last year. A tweet from SriLankan’s official twitter handle in February 2021 said, “SriLankan Cargo made history today by operating three consecutive cargo charter flights to Entebbe International Airport in Uganda by uplifting over 102 metric tonnes of printed matter.”
It included images of sealed cargo packages being unloaded at the Entebbe international airport.
The tweet was deleted when some social media users asked what this ‘printed matter’ was. The Sunday Times, therefore, filed a request under the Right to Information Act to get more details. SriLankan turned it down saying, “It falls within commercial confidence.”
It also claimed it did not have specific details on the contents of the cargo on the three Airbus A330 charter flights.
“The airway bill and charter agreement both mention the nature of goods as printed matter and do not provide further details,” the RTI response said. “The precise nature of the goods is subjected to review or clearance by Sri Lanka Customs prior to being brought to the cargo terminal for onward carriage by SLA.”
The national carrier also refused to divulge information on who commissioned the cargo to be sent to Uganda, the cost and details of the sender if there were, any citing Section 5(1)(d) of the RTI Act.
“This is because if the name of the entity/shipper is disclosed, then other airlines would also solicit business from this same shipper to the detriment of SLA,” it said. “Accordingly, the name is exempt information covered by Section 5(1)(d) of the RTI Act.”
News broke this week that Uganda’s financial industry risks being blacklisted by international systems for failure to put in place measures that can effectively prevent financial crimes like money laundering.
It went viral on social media in Sri Lanka with commentators speculating that influential politicians in the Government had transferred ill-gotten wealth to the African nation on the cargo flights.
Shortly afterwards, SriLankan issued a statement, this time confirming that the “printed material” was Ugandan currency notes–information it had initially claimed to the Sunday Times that it did not have. British currency printer De La Rue, which has a branch in Biyagama and also issues notes for Sri Lanka, issued a brief statement on the matter: “De La Rue provides banknotes for half of the central banks around the world. We do this from our sites in Sri Lanka, Kenya, Malta and the UK, with joint ventures in Sri Lanka and Kenya that contribute to the economies of those countries. We do not comment on our customers.”
