SLC has mulled signing controversial agreement, investigation shows

COLOMBO (News1st): Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has mulled the signing of an agreement that would not allow officials to divulge information to outside parties, a News1st investigation has shown. A request to this effect had been made by SLC officials during a management meeting on June 17. News1st  previously reported that a proposal was submitted to the Executive Committee of SLC on March 30, 2019 to destroy a set of documents. The proposal was put forth based on a recommendation by its legal unit stating there is no obligation to provide information older than 10 years under the Right to Information Act. An audit report also revealed that SLC officials had not taken the necessary steps to store vital and important documents in a systematic manner. It also revealed that SLC had incurred a financial loss of 182,242,111 US dollars to award the tender for the transfer of television broadcasting rights from 2013 to 2020. Officials of the SLC had accepted these observations, according to the report. Accordingly, the financial loss to the local cricketing authority from the sale of broadcasting rights in 2013 was approximately Rs 2.73 billion. The current CEO of SLC, who has virtuously acknowledged that a financial loss of Rs. 2.77 billion was incurred, had signed the final documents of the tender process for awarding the broadcasting rights, as the Acting CEO of SLC. It should be reminded that Ashley De Silva was the CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket when details came to the fore that a sum of US $ 187 084.75 due to Sri Lanka for broadcasting rights had been transferred to an American account. The current Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket was the Vice President of Sri Lanka Cricket and a member of the Tender Committee at the time this controversial tender process took place. Previously, News1st  reported that the Secretary of SLC had provided false statements to parliament while paying a commission of USD 339,025 for the Nidhahas Trophy. Shammi Silva who was the Treasurer of SLC when many misdeals such as the Cricket Aid fund, Kandy Cricket Campus and granting local broadcasting rights took place, is now the Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket. Is it not a cause for concern, that no individual has been brought before the law until now, although a plethora of corrupt activities which took place within SLC have been exposed.