Investigators have begun extracting and analysing data from the Department of Motor Traffic’s computer systems in an inquiry into alleged corruption and fraud at the department, two newsrooms reported on Friday.
The operation is led by the Walana Central Anti-Corruption Strike Force, the Daily Mirror reported at 10.56 a.m. and Hiru News at 11.31 a.m. Colombo time. Hiru describes it as a special operation to analyse the department’s data systems, aimed at uncovering fraud and corruption said to have occurred at the DMT over a long period.
Who is doing the work
The data-gathering is being carried out by a multidisciplinary team. Both filings place the same institutions at the centre of it:
- The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT)
- Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT)
- Computing specialists from the University of Colombo — identified by the Daily Mirror as the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), and by Hiru as the university’s computing department
- Officers of the Walana Central Anti-Corruption Strike Force
The Daily Mirror additionally names technical experts from GovTech Sri Lanka, which Hiru’s filing does not mention.
The composition is itself informative. Bringing in the national CERT, the state telecommunications operator and a university computing faculty indicates an inquiry into the integrity of the department’s records and systems rather than a conventional bribery investigation built on complaints and statements. What is being seized is data.
The unit
The Walana Central Anti-Corruption Strike Force is based at Panadura, in the Western Province, and this desk has recorded its work across a series of raids this year. Outlets render its name inconsistently — it has appeared as the Walana Central Anti-Corruption Unit, the Walana Anti-Corruption Unit and the Walana Anti-Vice Squad, all translations of the same Sinhala title. Hiru’s Sinhala text on Friday gives it as වලාන මධ්යම දූෂණ ප්රහාරක බලකාය, which is the “Central Anti-Corruption Strike Force” rendering used above.
Neither filing states the unit’s parent agency, and neither reports any involvement by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).
A department already under scrutiny
The DMT has been the subject of sustained reporting this year on service failures rather than on corruption — among them delays in driving-licence issuance, shortages of card stock for printing licences and number plates, and the rollout of the demerit-points scheme. Friday’s filings open a distinct line of inquiry into the department’s own conduct.
Both filings are hedged
Neither outlet asserts the investigation’s existence on its own authority. The Daily Mirror says the operation “reportedly involves” the Walana unit; Hiru attributes its account to what “is reported” (වාර්තා වන්නේ). No official is named or quoted in either filing, and neither identifies the source of the information.
Not reported
Neither filing names any suspect, officer or official under investigation, and neither says whether anyone has been arrested, interdicted or questioned. Neither gives an estimated financial scale for the alleged fraud, or identifies what kind of irregularity is suspected — whether in vehicle registration, licence issuance, revenue collection or records alteration.
Neither states when the operation began, how long it is expected to run, or under what legal authority the data is being obtained. Neither reports any response from the Department of Motor Traffic or the ministry responsible for it, and neither says whether DMT services are affected while the systems are being examined.
