7 April 2021 12:02 am
By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana
An outlay of Rs. 60 million by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) for the purchase of rollers for cricket clubs has been highlighted by the Auditor General as “suspicions”, it was revealed at the Committee on Public Enterprisers (COPE) hearing yesterday.
SLC officials were hauled up before the COPE once again yesterday, after a previous meeting was suspended due to the under preparedness of
SLC officials.
An opposition member of the COPE, who did not wished to be named, told Daily Mirror that the sum of Rs. 60 million that had been spent is suspected to have been with objective of buying votes for the upcoming SLC elections.
“The Auditor General has expressed his suspicion on these expenses,” he said.
The administrative structure of SLC has long been criticized for being a hotbed for politicking, with observers alleging that the large voter base at the SLC elections and opened it up to vote buying.
The opposition MP also said that SLC has spent Rs. 132 million on a cricket ground in Polonnaruwa, allegedly without prior archeological approval.
“Also, it was revealed that Rs. 132 million has been approved for a sports complex and stands for spectators at a cricket ground in Polonnaruwa without the approval of the Department of Archeology. This permission is required because it was to be constructed in a land which is said to be close to an archeological site,” he said.
“SLC officials when questioned said they have actually obtained the approval, but only as of yesterday,” he added.
It has also been revealed that the sum US$ 187,000 that was to be received from sponsors for a South Africa tour in 2018 has not been collected to-date.
It was revealed in February that sponsorship fee for Sri Lanka’s tour to South Africa has been gone into a bank account of a certain individual.
It was also reported that SJB MP Eran Wickramaratne had come up with a proposal to study the systems which are followed in Australia in UK to administer their respective cricketing bodies.
MP Wickramaratne confirmed this when contacted by the Daily Mirror.
Meanwhile, responding to the Daily Mirror’s query whether they were indeed any suspicions highlighted by the auditor general, the COPE’s Chairman Charitha Herath said: “There were some suspicious transactions but I cannot remember them off hand.”
There were some suspicious transactions but I cannot remember them off hand
- COPE Chairman Charitha Herath