Law yet to be enforced against corrupt SLC officials

COLOMBO (News1st): The law is yet to be enforced against Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials who had abused funds that had been directed for the development of cricket in the country. The SLC's Executive Committee, on April 22, 2017, had decided to obtain Rs 26.2 million rupees annually for 30 years to construct a proposed cricket university and also Rs 25 million each for two other projects. However, the proposed cricket university in Kandy remains stalled despite spending millions, with construction activities yet to take place. On previous occasions, SLC officials had been questioned by the Parliament's Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) on the proposed project. "We have changed this (project into) a High-Performance Centre and we are about to begin the construction of 10 indoor nets 10 turf wickets," Shammi Silva, the President of Sri Lanka Cricket had said during a COPE inquiry. He claimed that the project had been changed as they had to obtain approval of the University Grants Commission if they were to use the name of a university. Although the SLC Chairman had expressed such remarks, a proposal submitted to the National Projects Committee on the 5th of October describes the project as the Cricket Campus Project. A document, seen by News 1st, showed that the Executive Committee had approved an expenditure of Rs 114,502,540, for the construction of the lower ground floor of the proposed five-storeyed facility. The total cost for the campus is estimated to be Rs 895,038,320.