Parliament has passed the Trusts (Amendment) Bill, introducing mandatory registration and external audit oversight for trusts and foundations, NewsFirst reported.
Under the amendments, registration with the Registrar General becomes compulsory for both registered and unregistered trusts and foundations. The legislation also empowers the Attorney General and the Auditor General to examine the affairs of those bodies at any time.
NewsFirst reported that the number of trusts and foundations established by Acts of Parliament across the 7th, 8th and 9th parliamentary terms exceeds 500, and that no formal investigation has been carried out to date into whether those entities met the specific objectives for which they were created.
How the Bill reached the vote
The Parliament of Sri Lanka’s own account documents the stages immediately preceding passage. The Bill, which amends the Trusts Ordinance (Chapter 87), was presented for its First Reading on 21 October 2026 by Minister of Justice and National Integration Harshana Nanayakkara.
It then received the approval of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Governance, Justice and Civil Protection, which met on 4 November under the chairmanship of MP Dr. Najith Indika. Officials from the Legal Draftsman’s Department and the Ministry of Justice briefed that committee on the proposed amendments. MPs Ajith P. Perera, President’s Counsel Faizer Mustapha, Major General (Retired) G. D. Sooriyabandara and Dharmapriya Wijesinghe were among those who attended.
The committee’s clearance set the Bill down for its Second Reading on 5 November.
What the filings do not settle
Neither account states the margin by which the Bill was passed, nor whether it was amended at the committee stage in the House. The parliamentary record covers the Bill only up to the point at which it was listed for debate, and does not itself report the vote. No figure is given for how many of the 500-plus trusts are currently unregistered.
