A 20,000 sq. feet area of a newly constructed building has been reserved for the ministry for a monthly rent of over Rs. 20 million, reports add.

Ministry officials are critical of this extravagant decision which is being taken despite several buildings already been given to the ministry.

At the present, a section of the ministry is housed at the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation building while another section is functioning from the Tourism Board building in Kolpetty.

Over Rs. 3b income

It is said that annual income of the Tourism ministry is between Rs. 03 - 04 billion.

A chairman of the Tourism Board (which falls under the ministry) can approve upto Rs. 10 million without cabinet approval and the minister can approve upto twice the amount without cabinet approval.

Ministry Secretary in a meeting

The attempt to contact the Secretary of the ministry of Tourism failed as the telephone operator informed that he is in a meeting.

Though she stated that he will contact us following the discussion we received no response until the publishing of this article.