Sir Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke GCMG KCVO KBE KStJ (Sinhala: ශ්‍රිමත් ඔලිවර් ගුණතිලක) (20 October 1892 – 17 December 1978) was a Sri Lankan statesman.

With the implementation of the Donoughmore Constitution, the title of the head of the Audit Office was changed to Auditor General of Ceylon and Goonetilleke became the first to hold the new appointment on 7 July 1931 and served in this capacity till February 1946.

In this capacity, Ivor Jennings, Principle of the Ceylon University College, served as Goonetilleke's deputy, and the two worked closely with D. S. Senanayake, the Minister of Agriculture and Lands.

This group was known as "the Breakdown Gang" as they began to talk about much besides civil defence, including the steps that might be taken to move Ceylon to complete independence after the war.

However, on 18 December 1946, questions were raised in the House of Commons by Douglas Dodds-Parker on irregularities in the Auditor-General's Report on Civil Defence Expenditure for 1943–44 and 1944–45.

Senanayake announced at a press conference at the Galle Face Hotel around 7 pm that the 'Independence of Ceylon Act' was being introduced in the House of Commons at Westminster about the same time that evening.

[8] With the war drawing to a close and the closure of the Civil Defence Department, Goonetilleke left his post of Colonial Auditor which he held since 1931 to take up appointment as Financial Secretary of Ceylon in February 1946.

[10] He returned to Ceylon in early 1951, to resume his cabinet position as Minister of Home Affairs and Rural Development and Leader of the Senate in March 1951 succeeding Edwin Wijeyeratne and served till April 1952.

Goonetilleke was appointed by Kotelawala to his cabinet as Ministry of Finance and the Treasury on 14 October 1953, while holding the post of Leader of the Senate.

Shortly after a visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Ceylon in April 1954, the decision was taken to appoint a Ceylonese native to the post of Governor-General, succeeding Lord Soulbury.

D. S. Senanayake had died in 1952, and Colonel Sir John Kotalawela was Prime Minister when Goonetilleke succeeded to the position and took up residence in Queen's House.

[13] Goonetilleke once again was forced to take decisive action, on 25 September 1959 when Prime Minister Bandaranaike was shot at his home at Rosmead Place while meeting the public.

He informed parliament to continue and at 11 AM declared a state of emergency, bringing the military to full readiness and mobilizing reservists.

Felix Dias Bandaranaike, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence and External Affairs (and the Prime Minister's nephew), stated in Parliament on 18 February that Goonetilleke had been cited in the investigations as having been involved in the conspiracy.

Bradman Weerakoon, the Prime Minister's secretary, was dispatched to London in person, there to convey to the Queen that Mrs Bandaranaike's request that a new Governor-General be appointed.

On 26 February, Radio Ceylon announced that the Queen had accepted the Prime Minister's recommendation that William Gopallawa be made the new Governor-General, his term to take effect on 20 March.

In the investigation into the attempted military coup, some of the crown witnesses tried to link him and former Prime Ministers, Dudley Senanayake and Colonel Sir John Kotelawala, with the conspiracy; this was never proven.

In 1972, he was tried in absentia and sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 950,000 ($125,000) for exchange control offences by the Criminal Justice Commission.

The Government of Sri Lanka issued a commemorative stamp in 1982, to mark the 4th death anniversary of Sir Oliver Goonetilleke.

[19] A biography under the title 'OEG' was written by Charles Joseph Jeffries, and memorials to Goonetilleke include a six-foot bronze statue by sculptor Tissa Ranasinghe, commissioned by his family and installed in 1967 at a major roundabout in Colombo.