The theft of US$2.5 million from state funds could have been avoided had the Central Bank been more vigilant, Deputy Minister Kaushalya Ariyaratne told Parliament on Wednesday.
“CB could have been more vigilant when suspicions arose on the theft. The theft would have been avoided if CB was more vigilant,” she said.
Ariyaratne said the theft took place during a transitional period, before system changes were implemented following the enactment of the Public Debt Management Act. Staff attached to the Public Debt Management Office were undergoing an 18-month training programme at the time, she said, and responsibility for the office has since been fully transferred to it.
The Deputy Minister, who sits on the Committee on Public Finance, described the theft as a cybercrime and said such crimes have become a global phenomenon. She cited a Federal Bureau of Investigation report putting United States losses to cybercrime at US$16 billion, with Australia losing around US$2 billion.
She rejected the opposition’s allegation that the interdiction of four middle-level officers was intended to shift blame onto them while shielding senior officials, calling the claim far from the truth.
The COPF report on the theft was itself contested in the chamber. Opposition MP Chithral Fernando alleged that ruling party members of the committee had pressured its chairman, Harsha de Silva, not to include the word “fraud” in the report submitted to Parliament.
Fernando said the word was included only after opposition members of the committee pressed for it. “A dictionary was brought by those in the ruling party and got some words in the report,” he said.
The government has not responded to Fernando’s allegation.
Sources: Daily Mirror, Daily Mirror.
