While many institutions in Sri Lanka are plagued with corruption and irregularities, Colombo Swimming Club is the only organization who forced a change of management, led by a group of concerned members.
Amid claims of disputable actions on the part of the Committee of 2022 led by President Kishan Karunaratna and Vice President Pam Pieris who came under heavy criticism for their dictatorial attitudes and the club always being under construction.
Members brought out these issues at the AGM and at subsequent SGMs held in 2023 and as a result everyone in the Committee except the newly elected VP resigned.
The members then demanded an audit of the accounts for 2022 and the audit report by the prestigious auditors BDO found that the 2022 millions have been spent by the President, VP and the committee member who had approved all the work Mr. Sanjeev Jayasinghe without the approval of the house when the club’s constitution and past practices have been to follow proper procedure.
Whereas the amount approved at the 2022 AGM was Rs 11,265,125 million a staggering Rs. 135,241,913 million without obtaining committee approval had been spent as per audited accounts, it has been revealed following a Special Audit on Project approval buckets shared by the former head of finance Namal Perera.
Most of these prestigious clubs in Sri Lanka were established during the time of the British governed by a set of rules and a constitution, but very few checks and balances. During the British period certain men of honour ran these clubs, but as most of us have seen now in Sri Lanka, most organizations are run by not so honorable people.
This actually demands a proper examination of the rules of all the clubs and proper practices for checks and balances should be adopted.
