CALLS for CoI TO PROBE ‘COMMONWEALTH GAMES’ SPENDING

A commission should be appointed to investigate as to how a private company spent Rs. 200 million state funds for the Commonwealth Games, State Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim said.

The Minister said this in response to a question posed by JVP MP Nalinda Jayatissa in Parliament yesterday.

He said there is no account called Commonwealth Games and it is necessary to inquire into this issue.

However, there was a current account that was operated as C.W.G. Hambantota 2018 (Pvt) Ltd., and Rs.11 million was invested in a fixed deposit. The minister said state funds and donations were deposited in the above mentioned account.

“State funds amounting to Rs.190,387 million had been deposited in this account. It was difficult to obtain details of this account from the bank. This money had been used on foreign trips and safaris,” Minister Hashim said.

He further said a request was made to obtain details of this account, but were unable to obtain any information regarding this account or how the money was spent.

Therefore, a commission will have to be appointed to investigate and obtain this information. This is a state level process which should be initiated by the Sports Ministry. An investigation should be initiated to determine how this money was spent,” Minister Hashim said.