COPE meetings at stalemate after its Chairman accused of being bias on SLC
The conduct of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) came in for severe criticism from members of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) on Tuesday (14) when the Committee considered the special audit report into the ICC T20 Men’s World Cup 2022 in Australia.
Senior officials of SLC, led by its President Shammi Silva and Chief Executive Officer Ashley de Silva, were subjected to intense questioning during a Committee that sometimes grew quite heated. The Committee noted that while the SLC Executive Committee needed permission from the Sports Minister to travel to Australia as per the Sports Law, it was the Sports Ministry Secretary who had given covering approval for Executive Committee members on October 7, 2022 to travel to Australia.
Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe, meanwhile, had claimed he did not give approval for the said officials to travel to Australia. COPE accordingly decided to summon the former Secretary to the Sports Ministry, Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva, to question him on the matter.
Committee members also examined the travel expenses incurred by SLC for its Ex-Co officials to travel to Australia. The Auditor General’s Department noted that over Rs. 8 million had been spent for travel expenses of SLC officials for the T20 World Cup but no invoices or other documentation were submitted for a majority of these expenses when auditing.
While SLC officials had reimbursed the funds, it was noted that the incident raises questions regarding whether it had been done as an audit was taking place. The Committee agreed that it shows the SLC’s internal processes needed to be significantly improved to avoid a repeat of issues.
It was noted that SLC had issued visa sponsorship letters to a large number of individuals to travel to Australia to watch the tournament. They included family members of and friends of SLC officials. Two actresses were among those who had received visa letters from SLC and their names had been recommended by SLC Vice President Jayantha Dharmadasa.
Another person who had received a visa letter from SLC and gone to Australia for the World Cup had failed to return. Among those who had visa letters issued by the SLC were the brother-in-law and mother-in-law of SLC President Shammi Silva. It also emerged that visa sponsorship letters had been issued by SLC to Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe’s two daughters to travel to Australia.
The Committee was critical of the SLC’s conduct when it came to the issuance of visa sponsorship letters, as well as issues related to the purchase of air tickets and the selection of media personnel to travel to Australia at SLC’s expense to cover the tournament. It was emphasised that a more transparent process should be implemented when selecting media institutions to cover such tournaments at the Board’s expense.
COPE pointed out that the audit report shows glaring shortcomings when it comes to following accepted procedures at SLC. It ordered the Sports Ministry Secretary to develop proper procedures for SLC to follow. COPE also emphasised the importance of strengthening internal auditing within SLC.
It was decided to call SLC officials before COPE for three days continuously to further inquire into issues raised in the audit report. These inquiries however, are now indefinitely on hold following the announcement by the Speaker on Friday that all COPE meetings are suspended until further notice. The Speaker said the meetings will remain suspended until an investigation is concluded into the allegations leveled against COPE Chairman Prof. Ranjith Bandara, who has been accused of being partial to SLC.