The Free Lawyers Organization on Tuesday called on Parliament to launch a formal probe into irregular and excess payments made to beneficiaries of the Aswesuma welfare scheme in April 2026, describing the incident as “a collapse in state financial management.”
In a statement, the watchdog said benefits were scheduled to be paid to nearly 1.33 million families in April, but some recipients received double payments and others received amounts exceeding the stipulated Rs. 5,000 per family. It singled out Kegalle, Monaragala and Kurunegala as districts where irregularities have surfaced. The group compared the episode to the USD 2.5 million Treasury cyber theft, warning that both cases highlight serious weaknesses in financial accountability.
The organisation urged Parliament, citing its financial powers under Article 148 of the Constitution, to seek immediate answers to ten specific questions. These include the total number of beneficiaries who received double or excess payments out of the 1.8 million due in April, which officials authorised payments outside the procedures of the Welfare Benefits Board, whether financial powers under FR 135 were delegated to those officials, and whether the incident is a hacker attack, mismanagement or the result of political appointments without proper office knowledge.
It demanded that the Treasury be brought under the control of a senior administrative officer who is not politically appointed, and that recovery of excess payments be carried out administratively without imposing further hardship on poor families.
The intervention is the first formal accountability challenge to the Aswesuma payments system since the April installment was credited to 689,931 beneficiaries under the recently overhauled digital framework. The Free Lawyers’ parliamentary submission also called on both government and opposition MPs to act swiftly, warning the credibility of Sri Lanka’s financial management has already been exposed internationally.
