With sport becoming a multi-million dollar industry and Sri Lankan administrators cashing in at a free for all despite a nation gone bankrupt, billions of rupees have gone up in flames, a team probing mismanagement, corruption and public wastage has found out.
The probe team calling itself COPA that stands for Committee On Public Accounts has been told that as much as four billion or four thousand million rupees may have been busted on the construction of sports complexes, hostel facilities and training centres that did not see the light of day and arguably benefitted shady characters to make a killing.
Some of the half finished projects started in Chilaw, Matale, Moneragala and Matara have been consumed by the jungle tide with very little room for a salvage operation or restoration, it was revealed.
Had the projects been completed and commissioned many rural athletes would have benefitted immensely instead of setting up base in Colombo where some of them fall prey to sex predators under the guise of providing them with accommodation and welfare for training.
“Apart from schools, not a single sports academy is functioning and the Ministries of Education and Sports don’t seem to care.
“Providing balls and air tickets is not the solution and serves no purpose. Moulding athletes is what matters,” said Member of Parliament Weerasumana Weerasinghe at a COPA hearing.
The projects initially got off the ground under the auspices of the Sports Ministry and the Sports Development Department from 2020 to 2022.
The scrounging on sports in the country has been holding sway for more than 20 years and now at its worst with nothing done and a currently serving Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe rattling away to no avail with only hollow threats of a take-over or clean-up.
Providing evidence at the COPA hearing was the firebrand former Sri Lanka cricket World Cup winning captain and present National Sports Council chairman Arjuna Ranatunga who charged that elected sports organizations have developed a kind of phobia where they go crying to the world parent body of the sport to pre-empt a government takeover while screaming political interference to thwart the moves.
His remarks were indirectly aimed at Sri Lanka Cricket that continues to enjoy unprecedented immunity despite a collective call in Parliament from both the Opposition and government for a complete clean-up.
“This way they (sports bodies) are able to carry on with their roguish behaviour,” said Ranatunga.
