en_2235255_0	Colombo (News 1st): The Auditor General made a surprise visit to Sri Lanka Cricket this morning (March 1) to inquire into the process of the audit taking place on SLC.
en_2235255_1	On January 28th, the Sports Minister called for a forensic audit on SLC transactions from January 31st, 2016, to December 31st, 2018.
en_2235255_2	He requested the report in two weeks.
en_2235255_3	Reports indicate that the forensic audit will be conducted until the 31st of this month.
en_2235255_4	Issuing a media release SLC stated that the Auditor General met with the Chief Operations Officer of SLC Jerome Jayaratne.
en_2235255_5	SLC’s release states that the discussions ended on a positive note.
en_2235255_6	According to an SLC statement, COO Jerome Jayaratne informed the Auditor General, that the SLC Executive Committee had directed the senior management to extend their fullest co-operation and assistance in conducting the forensic audit of the SLC accounts.
en_2235255_7	However, an email from SLC’s Accounting Officer Kamalika Jayasekera sent last night claims all information to be provided to audit personnel must be first sent to the internal auditors, and thereafter it will be sent to the National Auditor.
en_2235255_8	This message was sent to 20 high ranking officials at SLC.
en_2235255_9	The E-mail further states that the compatibility of the information will be assessed by the internal audit officials before the information is forwarded to the Auditor General’s Department.
en_2235255_10	According to the National Audit act No. 19 of 2018 officials are duty bound to support the officials of the audit department to carry out their services.
en_2235255_11	What are the powers that allow this official at SLC to ignore this duty and influence, other officials, to first submit all relevant to information to her?
en_2235255_12	Is she attempting to protect corrupt and officials?
en_2235255_13	Former Minister of Sports Faizer Mustapha had employed the company, Ernst & Young, to conduct the audit at SLC for the time period from January 1st 2013 to August 31st 2018.
en_2235255_14	However, what happened to that audit report remains a mystery.
en_2235255_15	The time period covered by the audit report also is questionable.
en_2235255_16	The reason for this is the fact that details of massive financial fraud inside SLC was only revealed a week after the end of that time period, that is on September 5th 2018.
en_2235255_17	News 1st revealed details of an impending massive financial fraud when US$ 5.5 million due to SLC for broadcasting the England matches was to be automatically transferred from a Malaysian account to an American account.
en_2235255_18	If there was, in fact, an honest motive to reveal details of this fraud through an audit report, steps could have been taken to inquire into this incident during that time period.
en_2235255_19	The fact that it was not done creates ambiguity around their intention.
en_2235255_20	It was also reported that the final payment for broadcasting rights of the South African tour was transferred to an American account.
en_2235255_21	Amidst all of these irregularities the response of Sri Lanka Cricket towards the compilation of an audit report, that would potentially shed light on the real situation inside SLC, is suspicious, to say the least.
en_2235255_22	Our plea to the Auditor General is to continue with his investigations.
en_2235255_23	News 1st worked for the betterment of cricket over many decades.
en_2235255_24	It is no secret that our organisation was instrumental in securing the test status for Sri Lanka Cricket.
en_2235255_25	We extended our support to the cricketers at a time when the industry was not earning massive profits and there was no power struggle in the governing body of this great sport.
en_2235255_26	Therefore we have a right to speak about the sport and we stress that audits on cricket in Sri Lanka are an absolute must.
en_2235255_27	It should be noted that the transaction that took place from the time of the previous government should also be included in these audits.