Govt. rejects debt management lapses over $2.5m fraud, says safeguards strengthened
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s government on Wednesday (5) rejected Opposition allegations that the loss of US$2.5 million during a foreign debt repayment was caused by failures in public debt management, insisting the incident was the result of an online fraud and not a technical lapse in the country’s debt repayment process.
Deputy Minister of Media Kausalya Ariyaratne made the remarks in Parliament during the adjournment debate on the disappearance of US$2.5 million transferred by the Treasury to a foreign recipient.
Ariyaratne said the government’s debt repayment operations had been carried out as planned and without technical errors.
“The loss of US$2.5 million was the result of an online fraud. We completely reject the Opposition’s claim that this was caused by weaknesses in financial management,” she said.
Ariyaratne stressed that the funds had not been lost due to a failure in debt servicing, reiterating the government’s position that the incident involved internet-based fraud.
According to Ariyaratne, investigations are being carried out with the assistance of both local and international law enforcement agencies, while measures have already been introduced to prevent similar incidents.
She said a cybersecurity laboratory had been established in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT) to strengthen the cyber resilience of more than 250 government institutions and other critical infrastructure sectors.
The Deputy Minister also said the Public Debt Management Office had undergone a comprehensive administrative restructuring following the incident.
Under the new procedures, the previous system that allowed a single officer to independently authorize foreign debt payments has been abolished, with responsibilities now divided among multiple units to ensure oversight by senior officials.
She added that any future changes to a creditor’s bank account details would be subject to mandatory cross-verification through multiple independent channels before payments are processed.
-ENCL
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