Fernando vows to bring back order into Olympic governance
Rohan Fernando, the President of Sri Lanka Amateur Rowing Association, is in contention for the NOC hot seat - Pic by Amila Gamage
The breakdown of the organisational structure of the National Olympic Committee (NOCSL) and its administrative functions has led to the chaos at this all important organisation, according Amateur Rowing Association chief Rohan Fernando who is carrying out a campaign to highlight what he calls “irregularities”.
“I am open to take up the challenge if the team of sports associations is willing to back me,” said Fernando, who in 2013 opposed Dilan Perera, a powerful minister in the then government, when there was a contest for the presidency of this sports organisation. However, Minister Perera’s bid to the chair was scuttled by the IOC, citing political interference.
Fernando said that after the 2013 episode, they successfully managed to keep some of the intrusive elements out of the NOCSL. Then the organisation, ironically, decided to alienate itself from most of the governing partners.
“We came with much hope of revamping and in fairness to the Sports Ministry, which was also a part of the Lausanne discussion with the IOC, the independence of governance was established. But, it was decided at the same time to revamp the NOCSL constitution, adding Olympic values. It was in 2013 and the IOC gave the NOCSL six months to complete this task.
“At the same time because of the prevailing tensed situation the IOC decided that till such time the constitution was revamped at a special general meeting, all administrative matters should be handled by the 12 elected office bearers. During that period we expected the operations of the NOCSL would be handled by the group of elected office bearers. But, for some unknown reason, the very first such meeting was abruptly cancelled and since then, the NOCSL has been run by a few people – some of them office bearers and others are not — some others have no status quo, because they have lost their status quo by acting as coaches or not belonging to a duly elected sports organisation. This is the predicament of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka,” he said.
Fernando then questioned that how could an organisation of such stature be run without proper procedure? “Where are the ARs and FRs?” he asked. “This is where the problems started – on several occasions we tried to resurrect the situation, but at times, I found out that some people were very happy to keep things as they were. People were just not called in for meetings.”
The Rowing Association head said the meetings have to be called by either the President or the Secretary of an organisation. He said that he also brought to the notice of the NOCSL President that large amounts of money have been given out to various federations without proper approval. He said the finance committee met only on four occasions during the past four years. The finance committee insisted on having an internal audit on the expenses incurred. “The Auditor General has called on the NOCSL to produce the accounts from 2013 to 2016. How are they going to justify some of the expenditure? This is our fear,” said Fernando.
We pointed out that the NOCSL Secretary General categorically stated that the audit report will be produced by mid January 2018. Fernando’s reply was: “We hope so”. Then we pointed out that he was appointed to head the finance committee during the period in question. Fernando replied, “But, I am not a member of the executive committee. I am only a member of a sub-committee, but that status quo became null and void after the executive committee went defunct. Because the reporting authority is not the president or the secretary it is the executive committee who is the authority. We have not signed a single document – we do not have the power to do so. But we only hope that there won’t be any problems with the audit report.”
Then told him that after the SGM next month, the AGM has to be held in early February — and in the meantime, the audit report will be made available in mid Januaray. We asked could there be other repercussions in between because of the report. The Lankan Rowing chief replied with wry smile.
He said, “the IOC wanted the elective AGM to be held by the end of December and there was going to be a special general meeting to approve the accounts. These were the instructions by the IOC. Then there was the revamping of the constitution. By then the minister of sports was querying that since they had completed their part of the bargain by changing the intrusive elements, why they were delaying the NOCSL AGM. That is how this upheaval of having the SGM on November 9 came into being. But, officially we had only ten days prior notice. Still we went through the process without any incident. People are trying to say that we are obstructing. In reality we are not – we want this to happen. The only addition that we insisted was the limiting of the term of office of the President and the Secretary of the NOCSL to two terms – that is eight years. Eight years are a long time and even if we are hoping to contest we feel that period of time is sufficient”.