The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) expressed its strong displeasure due to the fact that the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry and the Sports Development Department came before the committee without preparation.
This displeasure was expressed when the COPA chaired by the State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna met on Thursday (7) in Parliament to discuss the reports of the Auditor
General for 2020 and 2021 and the current performance of the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry and the Sports Development Department. When the officers were asked about the matters mentioned in the Auditor General’s report, they failed to answer them. The Committee pointed out that these institutions were summoned to inquire about the sports in the country and the officials did not have any preparation for that. Because of this, the COPA decided to summon these two institutions again on October 20, 2023. The Committee mentioned that such an incident has not happened in the recent past of the COPA. According to the answers given by these officials, it was clear that there was no national plan regarding sports and no follow-up has been done regarding the spending of government funds. Also, the committee asked the officials about the number of games in the Olympics and the officials failed to give a correct answer. Thus, the committee expressed its regret in this regard as well.
Also, the committee asked about the games in the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and South Asian Games and the position of Sri Lanka in these tournaments and the games played and the officials present could not give a clear answer to this.
Also, the committee inquired about the number of sports currently in Sri Lanka and the officials present said that there are four registered A-grade sports, 12 B-grade sports and 73 C-grade sports.
The committee asked how many sports have established national records in this country and the
officials present said that they cannot give a definite answer in this regard. The committee also inquired about the sports being run in Sri Lanka and the records set of those sports in the last 5
years and the officials failed to give a specific answer for that too.
The committee inquired about the criteria followed in the transition of Sri Lanka’s national sport from Elle to volleyball, and no clear answer was received from the officials in this regard.
Also, according to the reports of the Auditor General, the committee inquired about the non- effective completion of the projects that had been spent about 1,500 million and since no satisfactory answer was received in this regard, the committee recommended to submit a report on this within a month.