COPE finds Karunanayaka influenced Lotteries Board procurement causing losses

By Saman Indrajith

Former Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake had influenced the procurement process of the National Lotteries Board, which was under the purview of the Foreign Ministry, during the yahapalana government, it was revealed during a probe by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE).

The COPE, on Friday, found that a tender for the procurement as regards the printing of scratch lotteries in 2017 had been suspended by the Cabinet decision at the request of the then Foreign Minister.

 Even though the then Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera had made an observation that suspending the tender was not right, the Cabinet had decided to do so

 The COPE met in the Parliamentary complex under the chairmanship of Prof. Charitha Herath to look into matters to the Procurement on the Print and Delivery of Lottery Tickets of National Lotteries Board, found that the tender for the printing of scratch lottery tickets due to be awarded to Aqua Flex Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd., had been stopped. That Cabinet decision had been made under the influence of Print Care Secure (Pvt) Ltd., and it had caused a huge financial loss to the National Lotteries Board. It had not been possible to call for a new tender for the printing of relevant lottery tickets until 2020.

Sources said that it had also been revealed that the annual reports of the National Lotteries Board for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 had not been submitted to Parliament. Accordingly, the COPE called for a probe into the matter.

 The COPE also observed that there had been a large number of vacancies in the executive posts of the National Lotteries Board over the years and COPE chairman directed the relevant officials to fill them expeditiously.

 The Committee pointed out that the National Lotteries Board had spent Rs. 609 million in 2016, Rs. 453 million in 2017, Rs. 506 million in 2018 and Rs. 530 million in 2019 on printing lottery tickets.

The COPE recommended that the procurement process of the institution should be carried out in a more systematic manner and that the process of printing lottery tickets should be properly regulated.

It was revealed that the company had not yet received the amount of US $ 26,000 due from the ‘’Colombo Airport Super draw’’ and the lottery draw process of ‘’Dollar Fortune’’ was not transparent. Therefore, the committee also recommended that the process be streamlined.

Ministers Mahinda Amaraweera, Sarath Weerasekera, State Ministers Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Susil Premajayantha, MPs Jagath Pushpakumara , Eran Wickramaratne, Nalin Bandara, Patali Champika Ranawaka, S.M. Marikkar, Premanath C. Dolawatta , Secretary to the Treasury and Ministry of Finance S.R Attygalle, National Lotteries Board Chairman Attorney at Law Lalith Piyum Perera and a number of officials were present at the Friday meeting.