Ex-chairman
denies any misuse of lottery profits
Profits of the Development Lottery had almost doubled during the
past two years and the contributions to the President's Fund had
been increased accordingly, former Chairman of the Board, J.K. Fernando
said.
Rejecting
claims that the DLB funds were misused, Mr. Fernando said that during
the past two years more prizes such as the 'lucky losers' prize
were introdcued and the board was functioning efficeintly before
President Kumaratunga took over it, citing irregularities.
Mr.
Fernando explained that the turnover of the Development Lottery
which was at Rs. 1,900 million during 2001increased to Rs. 2,600
million in the following year and during 2003 it had increased to
Rs. 3,500 million. He said a Rs. 5,200 million turnover was the
target for this year.
Accordingly
the profits from the Development Lottery had increased and the allocation
of Rs. 450 million to the President's Fund in 2001 was increased
to Rs. 480 million in 2002 while last year's allocation was Rs.
850 million, he said. The Presidential Secretariat earlier said
that the take over of the Lottery by the President was due to mismanagement
of the funds and various other corrupt practices. Mr. Fernando strongly
rejecting the allegations said that the houses built to be distributed
among the winners of the draw of the non-winning tickets were constructed
through the People's Merchant Bank and there was nothing illegal
in it.
He
said that among the other prizes were three-wheelers, TV sets, refrigerators
and gold jewellery. The State media had alleged that the houses
were distributed among known persons.
President
Kumaratunga also took over the National Lotteries Board last
week giving the same reasons and said that the workers had complained
that the funds were being misused.
On
Friday the President made new appointments to the Development Lotteries
and the National Lotteries Board. Former Civil Aviation Ministry
Secretary W.P.S.Jayawardena was appointed as the Development
Lotteries Board Chairman while former Treasury Deputy Secretary
and Sri Lankan ex-High Commissioner in Malaysia Daya Liyanage has
been named as the National Lotteries Board Chairman replacing Mr.
Deepal Gunaratne. |