Major corruption scandals were uncovered in the Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) by the three member committee appointed by the Sports Minister to look into the alleged irregularities.
Ministry of Sports by the Hon. Minister of Sports and Tourism Mr. Navin Dissanayake presented the report of the three member committee appointed to look into the alleged irregularities taken place in the ministries before the election of the new government.
The three member committee comprising of Mr.Dharmasena Dissanyake, Mr.N.Padmanadan and Mr.Ruzli Hussain were appointed on the 2nd of February to find facts about the alleged irregularities that took place with in the span of the last five years with a directive to submit a report before the 30th March 2015.
The committee found that the Federation had misused 40,000 euro from Italy, 260,000 USD from the Asian Football Confederation and a further LKR 10 million given by Holcim to build houses for the Tsunami victims.
Upon reviewing the audit report on January 19th 2015 done by the Auditor General the FFSL accepted that these facts were true. The committee has suggested immediate legal action against these corruption, the report goes onto say.
The 260,000 USD given by the AFC were for AFC Cup in 2008(USD 60,000) and 200,000 USD also in 2008 for the South Asian Football Championship.
Speaking to ThePapare.com current President of the Football Federation of Sri Lanka Mr. Ranjith Rodrigo had this to say,
“We have given the audited report to the relevant authorities and we believe there has been corruption. Although it wasn’t during my time, it is a sad situation. We are fully cooperating with the auditor general and the committee in the investigation.”
