Though Minister Bandula Gunawardana said that the agreement reached with Lyca Group to lease out the airtime of ‘Channel Eye’ owned by the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) can be terminated with one month’s notice, it has been leased for a period of three months, internal sources at the SLRC said.
A company with a three-letter name has already given Rs.50 million to the SLRC and the amount has already been spent.
Out of this, Rs.25 million have been spent to settle the outstanding electricity bill of the SLRC.
Meanwhile, a cheque for another Rs.25 million has been given by the same company to be cleared in the future.
It was reported that Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe, a dual citizen who holds both the SLRC Chairman and Director General posts, has prepared all the arrangements in this regard.
One of the major accusations levelled against Lyca Group all over the world is money laundering and serious doubts have been raised whether more money has been given to SLRC to launder money.
Meanwhile, the SLRC Chairman has informed the staff to be ready to give the amount of Rs.50 million back to the same company.
However, Prasad had leased out Channel Eye to Lyca last February when a tender was called and two applications have been submitted to lease it out.
It was said that Lyca Group was not among the institutions that submitted the applications.
Nethra TV given instead of Channel Eye
Although Dr. Samarasinghe had informed the Minister and others that Channel Eye had been leased out, it has now been revealed that Lyca has actually been given the frequencies of Nethra TV, which covers the entire country.
The reason for doing so is that the frequencies of Channel Eye do not cover the entire country.
Samarasinghe escapes to China
Meanwhile, it was said that Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe left the country last night (15) in order to alleviate the situation in the event the relevant agreement could not be approved by the Cabinet.
He has gone abroad for trivial reasons such as signing contracts for some free video programmes given by Chinese TV.
Although previously the head of the programme and the head of the unit related to the programme usually participate in these events, this time Dr. Prasad and his close associate Mothilal Hiswella (Head of the International Affairs Unit) have attended the event much to the displeasure of the SLRC workers.
The absurd situation is that even now the programme facilities are available at the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka which is about 500 meters away from the SLRC premises. The agreement could have been signed online though the two officers have left for China to sign it.
Sources from China said that the Chinese television has organised this tour on the strong demand of the SLRC.
It was said that Prasad and Mothilal have gone abroad despite Sumedha, the head of the programme, and Vajira Kumari Withanage, the head of the dubbing department, having expressed their opposition to this.
