By Skandha Gunasekara A complaint has been filed by a concerned citizen at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to probe into allegations of corruption and malpractices during the period of 2015 - 2018, regarding an alleged extravagant entourage of President Maithripala Sirisena during his visit to New York to attend the 72nd UN General Assembly in September 2017. The complaint stated that the President had taken a total of 73 individuals, including 22 journalists – 11 of whom were from the President’s Media Division – in addition to officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and security officers. Apart from the official group, his daughter Chathurika and her family, his son Daham and his fiancé, and her family were part of the President’s personal entourage, the complaint, seen by The Sunday Morning, stated. The complaint states that the President had taken 13 additional security officers to provide security for his family, despite security being provided by the host country to the state leader. The complaint alleges that the 73 members who went on the official tour of New York were lodged at the Loews Regency super-luxury hotel, while his family had gone on to stay at the Marriot Hotel in New York. The complaint also alleges that two officers of the Foreign Ministry had been assigned to look after and maintain five members of the President’s personal entourage including daughter Chathurika and her family, while four more officers of the Foreign Ministry had been assigned to dance attendance on the President’s son Daham and the family of his fiancé. The complaint was made by an Attorney-at-Law who did not want to mention more than his last name – Gooneratne. Gooneratne, speaking to The Sunday Morning, said that he was in the process of filling out a Right to Information (RTI) application and that he hopes to submit it on Tuesday (19). “I want to use RTI to get all the details of this tour. This is a huge waste of public money purely for the merriment of the President and his family, and needs to be investigated as soon as possible,” Gooneratne said. The complaint was lodged on 7 March 2019. When contacted, the President’s Media Division said that they were unaware of the complaint and were awaiting the return of President Sirisena who was overseas.