Cricketers’ Cancer Hospital Venture Handed To Health MinistryCricketers’ Cancer Hospital Venture Handed To Health Ministry

By Dinouk Colombage

Nearly ten years after initiating the HOPE Cancer Hospital project, Mahela Jayawardena and the Sri Lanka Cricketers Association have been forced to hand over the project to the Ministry of Health. Committee Chairman Mahesh Pasquel explained that they were forced to hand over the project due to their inability to raise the necessary funds.
Pasquel said that the project had been unsuccessful in raising the required amount of money as many donors withdrew their support for the project. He stated that corporate donors, such as MAS Holdings and Sri Lankan Airlines, were forced to withdraw their support for the project following the tsunami in 2004. He explained that following the tsunami, these companies re-directed their funds to aid projects that had been setup along the coast.
Jagath Fernando from MAS Holdings confirmed this saying the company had felt the funds for tsunami aid was a greater need at the time.
Pasquel said that the project, under their patronage, had collected a total of Rs. 57.8 million. According to the Chairman Rs. 25.7 million had been spent on the initial construction of the hospital. Alongside this a further Rs. 10 million had been spent on utility costs including fund raising, costs of architectures and so forth.
He explained that the HOPE project was handed over to the government along with the remaining funds that had been collected. Asked how much is remaining, Pasquel responded that Rs. 22 million has been given to the Ministry of Health while a further Rs. 1 million is still being transferred. He explained that the transferring of the funds was taking time as it had to go from one bank to another.
Pasquel added that all the accounts had been audited by Ernst and Young and were handed over to the Ministry. However, they have now requested that the HOPE organisation compile and provide a full list of donors. He said this was taking time as there had been numerous donors who provided sums as little as Rs. 50.
According to Ministry of Health sources, the audited accounts had been received and they were now awaiting the list of donors.