Millions of US$ defrauded at Sri Lanka Cricket?

COLOMBO (News 1st): 6 Months and 15 days. That is how long its been since the revelation of an attempt to transfer a large amount of money, which was intended for Sri Lanka Cricket for broadcasting rights, into a different account.

A look back at the controversial incident

The ICC is the largest financer of Sri Lanka Cricket. Awarding broadcasting rights brings in the largest amount of money to the SLC, among other means of income. Six months ago, on September 10, 2018, News 1st reported an attempt to transfer US$ 5.5 million to a separate bank account. The money was for broadcasting rights of the tour of England. It is questionable if the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Operations Officer at SLC carried out their duties properly in this instance. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that the Head of the Finance division was allowed to single-handedly handle this massive financial transaction. All discussions on the matter were conducted via electronic mail. When the incident was further investigated, it was revealed that the final instalment due for the tour of South Africa had also been transferred to a separate account. It is also befuddling that the 'responsible officials' at SLC took one month and ten days to realise that the institution had not received the due US$ 187,084.75. The Chief Executive Officer admitted that an official of a company owned by the former President of SLC had also signed off on the deal. This incident is further complicated, as even 6 months and 15 days after this massive revelation was made, officials of Sri Lanka Cricket had not clarified facts on the issue, or even commented on the current status of investigations into the matter.