Amidst of controversies arising over accountability and many other corruption allegations ahead of much awaited elections of office bearers to the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka, the incumbent secretary Maxwell de Silva sent off a press release dismissing some of the allegations level against his committee.
Following is a the full Media Release by the National Olympic committee dated 22-01-2018
National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka – Media Release
A disgruntled group of some officials of a few National Sports Federations is responsible for recent one sided misinformation on the accountability of the NOCSL. This group of persons in the face of certain defeat at the NOCSL elections scheduled for the 23rd February has started a malicious campaign to bring discredit to the President, Secretary General and the Treasurer accusing them of malpractices. I wish to reject all these allegations as baseless, malicious and revengeful and taking this opportunity to submit the following facts for the benefit of the General Public and Sports lovers.
Since Year 2007, NOCSL Annual Accounts are being audited by none other than the Auditor General and six final Audit reports with opinion for the period from 2007 – 2012 already have been received. Despite having a few procedural lapses, NOCSL Annual accounts have been duly approved. The copies of such reports have already been submitted to the Ministry of Sports. The draft Annual accounts for the years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 are currently being examined by the Auditor General and final reports with opinion are expected shortly.
On behalf of the Management of NOCSL, I have no hesitation whatsoever in assuring all those who are concerned about the accountability , transparency and good governance that NOCSL accounts are absolutely clear except for a few administrative and procedural errors. There is no meaning in discussing this subject prematurely, and I will be ready to answer all allegations levelled against the NOCSL accounts, when the final audit reports with Auditor General’s opinion are available shortly. Besides, such audited accounts will be available for all members of the NOCSL no sooner NOCSL received them.
Amidst all these vicious allegations against the NOCSL about fraudulent accounts, which are deliberately designed to confuse the general public and bring discredit to the current top management of the NOCSL, I have something very interesting to present.
Mr. Rohan Fernando, who is the main critic of the NOCSL accounting systems has conveniently forgotten the fact that he headed the Finance and Management committee for six years since December, 2010. He has chaired all the finance committee meetings of the said committee. He was actively engaged in the above committee until 2017 and even claim that he is the Chairman of the de-facto Finance committee currently.
Why is he only now talking about the fraudulent accounts of the NOCSL? What was he doing all these time in his capacity as the Chairman of the Finance Committee.
The President NOCSL, Mr. Hemasiri Fernando in my opinion made a significant error by appointing Mr. Rohan Fernando as the Chairman of the Finance & Management committee in 2010 without carefully checking his qualifications and credentials.
I wish Mr. Rohan Fernando good luck to remain the Chairman of his own de-facto committee forever.
Maxwell de Silva
Secretary General
NOC Sri Lanka
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