Editors Note
Epic Battle to Free RC From Corruption
Following highlights the dedicated efforts by a few committed alumni when the Principal acted deaf and blind, the Secretary had no interest and the Minister was waiting for someone else to cleanse RC. These few brave men, totally dedicated to making RC the cleanest institution, showed the public that instead of waiting for the government to act, there’s so much individuals can do so that the Leaders will start to follow them!
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2025 was productive and inspiring!
We managed to get rid of many Teachers clinging on to RC for decades with political patronage in spite of the Ministry’s 10Y regulation. (See FT report dated 19/07/24). All of them may not have been corrupt but every corrupt one had been hanging on for decades!
We stopped runaway irregular money collections at the Primary which used to top 100M in 2023 (please read ft.lk of 04/04/24, Blog reports on complaints to Bribery Commission and the HRCSL). All those millions of parental contributions, which hitherto went into handbags or private accounts are now going into the SDS where receipts are issued immediately and each collection, big or small, is recorded.
And then we went after the SDS itself and for the first time in the RC history, a forensic audit is being carried out by the Auditor General of SL (please read ft.lk. of 28/10/25). We only complained about the Disclaimer by the independent Auditors on its 2024 final accounts but now understand the audit inquiry is overflowing into RCU’s amassing money using State properties such as the Swimming Pool, Sports Complex, ATM machines etc. Looks like the RCU will have much explaining to do and their control over the RC is about to end up. For a long time, the tail has been wagging the dog and that fundamental error is likely to be corrected finally!
Many Alumni were kept in the dark of the largest heist in a school (Rs 17.6M) and the RCU was successful in hiding it under the carpet for 7 years until we challenged Principal Waththuhewa. Then the RCU became hyper active recovering Rs 9.9M in record time and now we are after the RCU to recover the balance of nearly Rs 8M.
SAGA was an annual musical show with the publicly stated objectives of collecting funds for the SDS and showcasing the talents of our students. That’s the noble and admirable facade. But behind it, there’s a multi million racket working overtime to enrich few corrupt individuals. The school administration looks the other way letting these individuals collect ransoms from hapless parents. Take the example of preparing costumes: there’s no procurement procedure despite the amounts collected are millions. Monies are collected through gullible parents (who have absolutely no authority to collect public funds), without receipts or explanations as to the breakdown of costs. There are no competitive offers and the monies are going to private accounts. All what the School Authorities say is that “it’s a private affair”. And like former President JRJ had collected undated resignation letters from his MPs, the school authorities are ready with hundreds of letters of consent by Parents. The very Parents who complain to us also confess that they too signed a standard letter stating that they paid the money willingly. Which Parent has the audacity to object? ගිරේට අහුවුනු පුවක් කියන්නේ මේවාගේ ඈයින්ට තමයි. “ගෙදර ගියොත් අඹුව නසී - මග හිටියොත් තෝ නසී” කියන්නේ මේවාගේ වෙලාවලටයි! (Please read Ft.lk of 28/11/25).
We have not only concentrated on financial irregularities. We have also exposed how disgustingly RC administration treats the scholars flocking to RC each year after brilliant performances at Y5 Scholarship exam. These kids, our future hopes, from each nook and cranny of the island, from villages we have never heard of, sometimes having to travel over 14H to reach Colombo, and mostly from poorest backgrounds flock to RC with only one hope: better English education! It’s not that they don’t have National Schools closer home. True, it the same syllabi and same public exams. So when they apply for Bi-lingual Medium, they are subjected to a most secretive exam in the Island. They are not told what they are tested on: there are no past papers to guide them. Until recently results weren’t made public. The papers are set by a Teacher or two who secretly conduct tuition classes. Wealth and influential parents enroll their children and are guaranteed their seat. Those desperate, having learnt their sons have failed, approach a go-between and have their sons admitted from the back door for a considerable fee. This is how the equality is practiced at today’s RC (please read recent Blog reports). No wonder a recent Secretary of the SDS publicly boasted that whereas other schools appoint their Prefects for free, it costs around Rs 10K to become a Junior Prefect at RC. No wonder that the RC Primary appointed 214 Prefects (out of 400 G5 students) few hours before joining the middle school! “වවුලා ගේ මගුලට ආවා නම් එල්ලිලා ඉදපන්” කීවාලු!
Yes, it has been a long and arduous journey by a few heroic and dedicated Royalists who couldn’t be hoodwinked or swayed by the “rotten” in RCU. It’s interesting to see how far RCU went to avoid (the unavoidable) this humiliating, damning and disgusting incident: it argued before the RTIC that RCU is a private and independent entity where the Principal was only a figurehead with no powers. The question everyone must ask now is why should we donate money to a private entity, who has already robbed millions of our contributions, when we can donate directly to the school? හොද හොද සෙල්ලම් එළිවෙන ජාමෙට කීවාලු!
And there were moments we had to remind the RC Administration of their duties. Whether it’s Dengue threat (Blog report), response to flood victims (Blog report) we have been pushing, cajoling and kicking. To those who accuse us of damaging the reputation of RC we got to say this; open your damn eyes and see how far the cancer of corruption has spread through the Royal body. We need immediate surgery and of course it’s going to be painful. We are doing this for our grandsons because we want them to experience the unique, priceless and the first class education we had at RC. And for thousands of rural kids, each one of whom should be transformed into a global professional with Lankan values. Let’s do it for our own sake and for Mother Lanka.
And let me conclude with a saying the legendary (late) Deputy Principal EC Gunasekera had drilled into us:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
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