Sri Lanka Badminton in dilemma; Minister dissolves committee

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Dayasiri Jaysekara

The sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara has decided to dissolve the newly appointed Sri Lanka Badminton executive committee as he deems their appointment to be unlawful without the submission of the auditor’s report to the Auditor General.

The minister addressed this issue at a press briefing that was held on the 30th at the ministry premises as the election was conducted in an arbitrary manner without heeding to the law of the country.

According to the sports law that was gazetted on the 27th of October 2016, it is mandatory for all sporting bodies to submit financial documents for the respective financial year to the Auditor General. This document is supposed to be submitted within two months of the completion date.

“The badminton association has not submitted the financial documents to the Auditor General and proceeded to have elections without heeding to any regulations”

It is a mandatory requirement for an Annual General Meeting of a sports body to have a certified Auditor General’s report to proceed with the elections; this was not addressed by Sri Lanka Badminton.

Accordingly, the elections that were held on the 24th of March saw Nishantha Jayasinghe winning the top chair securing 33 votes but with the correct protocol not followed, the appointment has not been accepted by the ministry and the association will be classified as suspended.

No audits submitted for 8 years

In a surprising turn of events, the sports minister brought light on to a serious matter, revealing that the badminton national body has not submitted the respective reports for the past 8 years.

“They had not submitted audits for eight years and had submitted all eight year reports on one day.”

“The Auditor General received the records of all eight years two weeks back and it is not practically possible to enact such a thing in such a short time”

National body heading to suspension

As powers entrusted to the minister by the 1973 act section 33, an interim official will be appointed to oversee the national body until the financial reports are approved. Thereafter a fresh election will take place under the supervision of the interim committee.

“This will only inconvenience the players. There are a series of events coming up both national and international. The players will need to represent the country and this will affect them the most.”