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SLC summoned before COPE today

11 Feb 2021

[caption id="attachment_119097" align="aligncenter" width="982"] SLC officials and ministry secretaries before the COPE on 19 September 2019[/caption]

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has been summoned before the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) today Thursday, its Chairman Prof. Charitha Herath said in a media release yesterday (10).

The Auditor General’s report on the financial years 2017 and 2018 of SLC and its performance are to be reviewed in today’s proceedings. The committee is scheduled to meet in Parliament today at 2.00 pm.

Regarding the summoning, SLC President Shammi Silva told The Morning Sports yesterday that the COPE investigation was something which began mainly as a false campaign by some interested parties, also involving a section of the media, on past transactions of SLC.

SLC President says they are ready

“We have done nothing wrong. We have explained that when the COPE committees summoned us during the previous Government. The new COPE committee has summoned us. We are ready to face it,” Silva added.

The previous COPE, under the chairmanship of the then MP Sunil Handunneththi, summoned SLC on a couple of occasions in 2019. Following directives by the COPE then, SLC President Shammi Silva, its Secretary Mohan de Silva, Vice Presidents Ravin Wickramaratne and Kangadaran Mathivanan, CEO Ashley de Silva, Assistant Treasurer Lalith Rambukwella, and Head of Administration Aruna de Silva met with it. They were put under rigorous questioning on some occasions. The COPE proceedings were allowed for media coverage that time.

SLC not funded by Govt. Treasury

SLC’s activities were then under scrutiny by forensic audits which had reportedly revealed a number of financial irregularities and corruption. Handunneththi once told the SLC officials, during one of the 2019 COPE meetings, “If this is the manner in which you make excuses, we can imagine the way it would be when it comes to responding to our queries in the probe.”

Handunneththi was then quoted as saying that they were investigating SLC transactions not because it was funded by the Government Treasury, but because it is the authority of cricket in the country.

[caption id="attachment_119098" align="alignleft" width="618"] The conclusions given by the Auditor General following his report’s third chapter on collection of income through sale of international TV broadcast rights etc[/caption]

We run as a corporate entity

He further said; “If the sponsorship money that the cricket board receives are used properly, that will be enough to develop not only cricket but all other sports of the country. The financial transactions are made in dollars. Comparatively those amounts are larger than what many other institutions get.”

SLC President too said yesterday that SLC cannot be considered a public institution. “We don’t use public funds. We are running as a corporate entity and a member of the ICC (International Cricket Council).

Wickramaratne’s report

The Auditor General’s report on the SLC financial years 2017 and 2018 covered areas such as:

(i) Establishment of a cricket university as an Advanced Technological Training Centre for training national and international cricket players and acquisition of a land on the lease basis thereto, (ii) Matters related to selling of Rights of SLC such as international TV, broadcast, radio internet, mobile (wireless), and sponsorship, (iii) Examination on recruitment of a national Head Coach for the Sri Lankan cricket team, reportedly Chandika Hathurusingha (iv) Examination on sale of local radio broadcasting right on international cricket matches by SLC, and (v) Examination on affairs relating to establishment of a company by SLC named “Cricket Aid” (Guarantee) Ltd.

The above report was issued in October 2019 under Auditor General W.P.C. Wickramaratne.


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