The Matara hotel bill that turned the Sports Min. topsy turvy!

The Sports Ministry is reportedly in a quandary, having followed a new system to obtain rooms for a large contingent including ministry officials, referees, sports officers etc who were participating in the National Sports Festival last September in Kotawila, Matara, organised by the Sports Ministry.

Its been almost five months since the conclusion of the sports
festival, but the hotel bills running into millions has still not been settled.

It is said that the booking of hotels had been handed over to another institution on the intervention of a senior official of the sports ministry and that intermediate institution had also kept a cut and booked the rooms for the sports ministry officials at exorbitant rates.

However, the Sports ministry is in a quandary as this official has no authority to approve such a large sum.

On prior occasions the sports ministry practice was to deploy their own officers and book the rooms and make the arrangements for accommodation. However, this issue has cropped up mainly due to the employment of an intermediate company to do the bookings.

Even the torch that was made spending millions was a waste of money as it failed to light, it is reported.

The representatives of the said company are constantly coming to the Sports Ministry to obtain this money, it is said.

Ironically though, the hotel accommodation obtained was apparently not upto standard, while they were also reportedly located around 50 km away from the venue of the event.

During the course of the sports festival, it is also said that some officials had refused the hotels and gone off due to these reasons.


more>>>
http://www.srilankamirror.com/news/7504-the-matara-hotel-bill-that-turned-the-sports-min-topsy-turvy