More details of NOC funds being misused
In the midst of the country’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) risking their status as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) over potential misconduct and corruption, they are being charged with another possible misconduct of funds granted to athletes and the NOC Athletes’ Commission.
The allegation raised by certain interested parties, connected to the NOC, reveal that a sum of USD 10,000 granted by the IOC to NOC’s athletes’ forum to conduct a series of programmes covering various skill development projects, has been ‘misused’ or ‘vanished’ without being utilised for the dedicated matters.
judoka Chamara Dharmawardana (left)
“As we are aware, the said amount of USD 10,000 was meant to conduct motivational, English and other training programmes targeting athletes. We were told that the programmes were conducted, but there’s no evidence of such any,” a source said.
The grants, received somewhere around 2022, is said to have disappeared without a trace with the Athletes’ Commission yet to present a detailed account report so far. This has aroused mistrust within sectors of the NOC, who face a potential global ban due to its own administrative mishaps.
In addition sources reveal that NOC scholarship grants, presented to potential athletes with medal prospects, has been freely issued to handpicked athletes below par standard during the past two years. This conduct by the NOC hierarchy has left deserving athletes in the dark, as certain athletes have been entertained with such grants for a considerable period, without merits.
According to sources, judoka Chamara Dharmawardana, who represented Sri Lanka at the Tokyo Olympics in the Men’s 73kg category, has been dishonourably taken off the list of being such a recipient. In his place, the NOC named Rajitha Pushpakumara as the new recipient of the 2024 Olympic Scholarship.
Amal Ratnayake, the former national judo coach, too highlighted the issue way back in December 2023 in a letter to the General Secretary of NOC, in which he has accused Maxwell de Silva, the secretary general for allowing the former Sri Lanka Judo Federation President, Duminda Asela de Silva, to decamp after the Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham.
Ratnayake has duly noted that Dharmawardana has defeated Pushpakumara at a top judo competition held in Nawalapitiya in 2021, and that the new recipient holds no proper performance credentials to receive such a scholarship. Dharmawardana was named the country’s best judo athlete in 2023 and was placed seventh at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022, ninth in the 2016 Rio Olympics and 17th at 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The letter also alleged that the scholarship was awarded to Pushpakumara purely based on monetary gains, and not for his performances or achievements as a judoka. The fully detailed letter was sent to the Ministry of Sports in addition to the NOC, but so far the issue remains unsolved, despite being 12 months since it was delivered to the relevant authorities.