Opposition MPs drew parallels between the Rajapaksa administration’s 2021 appointment of Ajith Nivard Cabraal as Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the National People’s Power Government’s decision to install a former Deputy Minister, Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma, as Treasury Secretary, arguing that both reflect the politicisation of key economic institutions.

Speaking during Tuesday’s parliamentary debate on the $2.5 million Treasury phishing scandal, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Mujibur Rahman said the current administration had abandoned positions it had previously taken in opposition over political interference in economic governance institutions, according to the Daily FT.

Rahman recalled that the JVP and then opposition MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake had strongly criticised the Rajapaksa administration when Cabraal relinquished his National List parliamentary seat to take the CBSL Governor’s chair in 2021. He argued the NPP had now done the same in another guise.

“But this Government has now done the same by appointing one of its own political figures to oversee the biggest and most complex institution in the country, the Finance Ministry,” he said.

Rahman said the Treasury Secretary post had traditionally been held by senior Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) officers with extensive experience in public finance, debt management and state administration. “The crime is unprecedented. But so is the appointment of a political activist as Treasury Secretary, a role traditionally held by highly qualified and experienced SLAS officials who understand the complex State machinery,” he said.

The intervention came amid wider opposition allegations that the phishing scandal exposed institutional weakness within key Finance Ministry departments during the transition of government debt management operations from the CBSL to the Treasury. Last week, Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa publicly defended Suriyapperuma, saying he would not be removed over the heist and rejecting separate allegations of dual citizenship raised by civic groups two days earlier.

Source: Daily FT.