| Sports
Minister should submit all Accounts of SLC to Parliament
Rienzie is ignorant about cricket and its administration
-Mohan
By Marlon Fernandopulle
The President and Treasurer of Sri Lanka Crickets 2004/05 committee
Mohan De Silva and Nuski Mohamed have accused former Interim Committee
Chairman and current IC member Rienzie Wijetileke as being ignorant
about cricket and its administration and urged the sports Minister
to submit all past accounts of SLC to enable Parliament to debate
the inefficient management of the appointed interim committees as
against the competent management during the periods SLC was being
managed by elected members.
Reacting
angrily to an interview given by Rienzie Wijetileke which was published
in The Sunday Times on the 3rd of July former SLC President Mohan
De Silva said, “Mr Wijetilleke speaks about SLC being accountable
to Parliament. All the interim committees were appointed by the
respective Sports Ministers. We therefore urge the Hon Minister
to submit all these accounts over the past several years in order
to enable parliament to debate the inefficient management of the
appointed interim committees as against the competent management
during the periods SLC was being managed by elected members. All
I can say is that Mr Wijetileke’s ignorance about cricket
and its administration has been exposed by his own interview”.
In
a signed letter to The Sunday Times the former SLC officials have
given their comments to Wijetileke’s interview.Excerpts from
their letter is published below.
Bank
Deposits
Mr Rienzi Wijetileke’s excuse for depositing monies at lower
interest rates in fixed deposits at Hatton National Bank, whilst
he was simultaneously the Chairman of the Interim Committee and
the Managing Director of HNB, is untenable and his act is neither
moral nor ethical. At the time, several banks including Sampath
Bank, Commercial Bank and the two state banks, Bank of Ceylon and
People’s Bank had offered higher rates of interest for foreign
currency deposits. In addition, these banks too had agreed to offer
ancillary services as provided by HNB at no additional cost to the
Board.
Mr Wijetileke in his capacity of Chairman Interim committee was
part of the decision making process and his interest was not disclosed
to the Auditors, SJMS Associates at the time of Audit. It is therefore
apparent that Mr Wijetileke used his office to gain a benefit to
HNB in an unethical manner. It reflects poor corporate governance
and best practices of a public quoted company on his part.
According
to the former Finance Manager of BCCSL, it has been estimated that
a loss of around 1.5 Million Rupees per annum has been incurred
by depositing these monies with HNB. This loss can in no way be
justified by Mr. Rienzi Wijetileke’s explanation of providing
free services.
As
a result of the above action, from the year 2000 onwards SLC decided
to discontinue banking with HNB and has not done so to April 2005.Cricket
- Aid
Mr Wijetileke’s comment that Cricket Aid appears to have been
an unnecessary financial involvement on the part of SLC is heartless
and shocking. Sri Lanka Cricket is very proud that this was the
biggest socially responsible project launched in the history of
world cricket by the cricketing fraternity to help those affected
by the tsunami disaster. The New Zealand tour was called off, and
the domestic cricket tournaments were suspended, all with a view
to assisting the disaster stricken families throughout the coastal
belt of our country.
Cricket
Aid was launched and managed as per the guidelines given by reputed
NGO’s such as UNICEF and WORLD VISION. It was their recommendation
that to deliver the best results, a separate administrative unit
should be set up and around 5% of the donations could be set aside
towards administrative costs to give real effect to the project.
Cricket Aid also engaged the internationally recognised Auditing
firm PriceWaterHouse Coopers (PWC) to formulate the guidelines in
order to conform to the best accounting practices. If not for the
inauguration of “Cricket Aid” the monies pledged out
of charity cricket matches etc. would have been lost to our country.
Mr Wijetileke appears to be talking through anger, which perhaps
has affected his reasoning.
Legal
Fees
With regards to consultation and legal fees it has been a firm view
of SLC that outside expertise and specialized inputs were a necessity
in the final analysis for matters of importance whether it is legal
or financial and in order to ensure the best possible results. It
must also be pointed out that due to a number of litigations overseas
and locally arising out of the bungling of the Nimbus Contract by
a previous interim committee, costs escalated beyond reasonable
proportions.
In
all other matters raised by Mr. Wijetileke in his interview under
reference we wish to assure that SLC has always followed proper
procedures and acted in a responsible manner. If only he went through
the documentation available in the SLC files now in his custody,
he would have found all the answers for himself- that is of course
provided he could have comprehended the same.
Travel
Office bearers and Committee Members and Senior Staff of SLC need
to travel to exchange views on cricketing issues, attend international
meetings, to attend to administrative, legal and financial matters
etc and also to meet the international cricketing community and
build up relationships with their counterparts abroad. This forms
part and part and parcel of the modern day management and administrative
process. This sort of familiarization and relationships came in
handy and useful when Sri Lanka was facing controversial player
issues such as Murali’s bowling action etc recently. It is
the rapport developed at such meetings, the public relations and
better understanding created between the respective Boards and Officials
that ultimately help in the negotiation of all matters pertaining
to cricket at an International level and other fora.
Staff
As for Mr Wijetileke’s comment on the “largely redundant
staff at SLC” when he stated that 15 employees could handle
all the work of the SLC, it must be pointed out that during his
time as Chairman of the Interim Committee there were nearly 70 employees
and he did absolutely nothing to enforce his so called efficient
system of working with reduced staff. It is also relevant to point
out that SLC Committees including the 3 interim administrations
over the past six years have engaged staff averaging 75 personnel
to handle work at SLC. It is already over 3 months with the current
Interim administration and the staff of SLC is 80 plus with the
addition of 4 more employees during this short period. We wonder
what has Mr Wijetileke to say. All easily said than done! |
