Two weeks to prove eligibility

by Lal Gunesekera

GENERAL SPORTS: Two weeks have been granted to 39 controlling bodies of sports to prove the eligibility of their affiliates for voting rights at annual general meeting which were earlier scheduled to be held before March 31.

This directive has been issued by the Minister of Sports and Public Recreation, Gamini Lokuge, after receiving protester from various affiliate clubs that they have been left out of voting by their respective controlling bodies at annual general meeting. Various other allegations too have been made against certain controlling bodies.

The Chairman of the National Sports Council (NSC) Dr. Maiya Gunasekera, told the 'Sunday Observer' that Minister Lokuge has requested the NSC to look into this matter of eligibility as some clubs are only registered "on paper" and will have to check their status - participation in various tournaments, development work undertaken etc.

Only genuine clubs will be given the greenlight, while the others will be stripped of their voting rights. He further said that they (the NSC) cannot look into the auditing of accounts etc of controlling bodies and that most of them have not sent their audited accounts.

He said: A mechanism will have to put into place next year. Some controlling bodies have indicated that these auditered statements will "come in" only in April, as audit firms have procedures to follow.

Only 13 of the 52 controlling bodies have been granted approval by the Minister to conduct their annual general meeting before March 31. They are Soccer, Golf, Squash, Boxing, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Gymnastics, Motor Sports, Rowing, Carrom, Athletics, Bridge and Athletics. The last named controlling body has been instructed not to permit Colombo District to vote at their annual general meeting and that the Auditor-General had made certain observations regarding the accounts of the AAA.

The nine Interim Committees are not affected by this ruling of Minister Gamini Lokuge. They have been "left alone".