PM crushes Lyca deal during cabinet meeting

The Cabinet has rejected a decision to lease Channel Eye owned by Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC), to the Lyca Group.

The relevant decision had been taken by current Chairman of the SLRC – Dr. Prasad Samasinghe.

Although both parties had entered into an agreement in late July for the handover, no prior permission had been taken from either the SLRC Director Board or the Ministry of Mass Communication. In this backdrop, Mass Media Minister Bandhula Gunawardena had tabled a special cabinet paper before the cabinet of ministers this morning (Aug. 14), to secure covering approval for the agreement, which had been strongly rejected, reports say.It is also said that this measure, which had been carried out without any transparency, had been severely criticized by several members of the cabinet including Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena.

The board of directors including the former chairman had proposed to lease the loss ridden ‘Channel Eye’ to a private investor. Accordingly, a public notice request for EOIs for the selection of a Broadcast partner was published on February 03.

With a 17 February closing date, two leading communication institutions forwarded bids.

However, the newly appointed SLRC Chairman had recently taken measures to lease the channel to Lyca Group even without informing the two bidding companies.

It is said that he had already obtained a Rs. 75 million advance payment which he had used to pay off half of the overdue electricity payment of the SLRC.