8 November 2023 08:07 pm
By Shehan Daniel
Parliament is set to debate a resolution tomorrow, which will be moved by Leader of Opposition SJB MP Sajith Premadasa, amidst mounting public pressure for the SLC administration to be sacked.
“We will seek legal advice,” was the short answer given by Wickramaratne, when asked if the SLC administration did not have a moral obligation to resign if asked to by Parliament, even if the passing of the resolution was not legally binding.
“We are here because of our stakeholders. There is a small section of the public that wants us to resign, but our stakeholders are also part of the (larger) public too and they have democratically elected us,” Wickramaratne said.
SLC has been in upheaval this week, with the Sports Minister dissolving the administration on Monday, instating an interim committee, led by Arjuna Ranatunga, in its place.
An interim order by SLC President Shammi Silva on Tuesday however, stayed the operation of the interim committee, with Ranatunga seen leaving the SLC offices on Tuesday.
Kapuwatte said SLC was in the process of developing four venues for the Under 19 World Cup that is scheduled to be played in Sri Lanka next year, and it was cheques drawn for those expenses that were taken by Ranatunga when he left the SLC offices.
“Arjuna Ranatunga who came here for a day, has taken all those cheques and he gave huge publicity to this stating that we have drawn cheques amounting to millions for unauthorized reasons when leaving SLC, and he is trying to project this as a fraud. It is for this reason (the development of the grounds) that we have drawn these cheques,” Kapuwatte said.
“They are supposed to hand over the cheques, but they have not yet,” he claimed.