by Rex Clementine

Sri Lanka Cricket’s top brass was put on a sticky wicket by Parliamentary watchdog COPE – Committee on Public Enterprises – when a probe was done into several dealings of the sport’s governing body this week.

COPE Chairman Professor Charitha Herath made a scathing attack on SLC’s Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer Ashley de Silva for the large scale corruption within the institution.

Professor Herath went onto note that why the game of cricket has suffered new lows in recent times. He said that it was not because of dearth of talent but the sport has been grossly mismanaged by officials who use cricket as their ‘backyard’. COPE recommended urgent legal action to be taken against SLC officials who have developed ruthless, mean and new methods to siphon off large chunks of money.

One of the biggest frauds at SLC in recent times was highlighted during the COPE hearing. An SLC insider instructed the board’s television partner Sony to transfer a sum of US$ 5.5 million to an offshore account in Hong Kong. The transfer was prevented when Sony got suspicious and requested an employee of SLC that why the money had to be transferred to Hong Kong? When the employer informed that no such move had been instructed by the board, it came to light that on a previous instance Sony had already transferred a sum of US$ 187,000 on the instructions of an SLC insider to a bank account in Mexico. That money is still unaccounted for.

SLC at this point informed COPE that the board had suspended the head of finance for this transaction. However, the COPE in return responded that the Head of Finance is just a small fry in a large scale racket.

COPE noted that the transfer of these large chunks of money had been cleverly disguised. SLC’s Ex Co had first removed Chandramali Koralage, the long standing Head of Finance. Together with her, the Accountants who worked for SLC were removed as well. SLC then brought in a new Head of Finance and from there on daylight robbery took place at Maitland Place.

COPE further said that SLC’s unwillingness to conduct an internal inquiry into the loss of massive amount of money was proof that those running the sport did not want to go to the bottom of the problem and find out who were the real culprits.

COPE made some more stunning revelations with regard to the termination of Chandika Hathurusinghe’s contract. It was exposed that if the former Head Coach’s full salary had to be paid for his remaining period of service, SLC would have ended up paying something to the tune of Rs. 100 million. However, by taking him to courts, SLC has already incurred a loss of Rs. 30 million as legal fees and could eventually end up paying the Rs. 100 million and more to Hathurusignghe for wrongful termination of contract. COPE noted that by taking such questionable decisions, parties within SLC could be getting paid under the table while the organization suffered colossal financial losses. COPE Chairman Professor Herath went onto note that SLC CEO Ashley de Silva’s arguments on this account were childish. De Silva was also severely reprimanded for not knowing the contents of his own organization’s minutes.

It was also noted that SLC had written off large chunks of money that companies and members owed the board – at times funds up to the tune of Rs. 25 million. It was observed that some insiders were getting paid handsomely or these were done expecting votes at the AGM. These payments had been subtly marked as match payments or construction payments. However, there is no agreement between SLC or contractors for any of these constructions.

It was also pointed out during the COPE  hearing that there were individuals who provided no service to SLC but were paid a monthly allowance  of Rs. 500,000; Rs. 200,000 for transport and Rs.  300,000 as other allowances!

It also came to light that SLC had put up a cricket ground in 2017 in Pollonaruwa to please a powerful politician.  Although the board had spent Rs. 131 million on the project, no proper approvals from relevant government offices including the Archaeological department had been taken.