TISL Executive Director moves out

As planned over a year earlier, the Executive Director of Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), J. C. Weliamuna bows out at the end of the year after completing eight and a half years service.

He was the first Executive Director of TISL and skillfully steered the organisation on its mission to main stream corruption and improve transparency, accountability and good governance in Sri Lanka.

He will be succeeded by Dr. Wijaya Jayatilaka who joins TISL with a wealth of experience. He is an educationalist, academic and an activist. He has extensive experience in capacity development, good governance and human rights-related work and has a passion to work for socially and economically disadvantaged groups.

Dr. Jayatilaka’s selection was made after a transparent process where a number of short-listed candidates out of 67 were interviewed by a panel comprising selected members of the TISL Board of Directors and an external consultant.

Expressing their gratitude to all stakeholders for the cooperation extended over the years, TISL Board of Directors along with Executive Director Weliamuna look forward at this transition stage to their continuous support for the progress of the organisation.

TISL is confident that it will meet the aspirations of the stake holders and general public to achieve its goal to make Sri Lanka a place of integrity.

Constitutional lawyer and human rights advocate, Weliamuna was invited by the Trustees of TISL in July 2002 to join the organisation as its first and to date only Executive Director, with a clear mandate to revitalise the fledgling institution and give it a new direction and dynamism.

It was under his astute leadership that TISL has become perhaps the most visible anti-corruption entity in Sri Lanka and an active contributor to the global TI network.

Weliamuna’s creative and persuasive skills have ensured a wide support base for TISL from within the public, private and civil society sectors. This has been achieved in an increasingly challenging environment of suppression and extreme anti-NGO sentiments.