The Free Lawyers’ Organization on Saturday urged the government to formally table the official report on last year’s USD 2.5 million cyber fraud from the General Treasury before Parliament at the next sitting day, saying more than eight months had elapsed since the heist with no parliamentary disclosure of the investigation’s findings.
In a statement reported by Ada Derana, the organisation said it was “the responsibility of all relevant parties” to present the relevant reports by the next sitting day of Parliament. The Free Lawyers’ linked the heist directly to weaknesses in the institutional control mechanisms during the transition under which Sri Lanka’s government debt-management responsibilities were moved from the Central Bank to the Public Debt Management Office, a new institution established under the General Treasury as a condition of the International Monetary Fund’s loan programme.
“Debt management involves the timely and accurate repayment of domestic and foreign loans obtained by the government, along with the proper maintenance of transaction records,” the organisation said. It alleged that “due to weaknesses in control mechanisms during the transitional period when responsibilities were transferred from the Central Bank to the Treasury, fraudsters were able to divert USD 2.5 million into foreign accounts amid institutional conflicts.”
The organisation said the heist was “not merely a technical lapse but a serious failure in governance systems,” noting that the incident — which reportedly resulted in the death of an official — extended beyond a financial loss. Suriyapperuma, the Treasury Secretary, was named by Free Lawyers in April demanding his resignation; the Committee on Public Finance has since received the official treasury report on the heist on June 4, but the Saturday statement marks an escalation: the demand now is parliament-floor transparency, not just briefings behind closed committee doors. Free Lawyers earlier this month also pressed the CBSL, asking why the Central Bank had not been held responsible for the heist a week before the PDMO transition was completed.
The CID’s forensic track on the heist is separately ongoing. CID investigators recorded 42 statements and a court-ordered foreign-bank document deadline of July 8; Sri Lankan authorities also disclosed in late May that USD 200 of the diverted funds had been recovered from Delaware. The bulk of the diverted sum remains overseas.
Update — June 20: Auditor General opens formal audit
Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando said on Saturday that a full report on the stolen funds has been submitted to the Auditor General and that investigations are now being conducted formally, NewsFirst reported. The Auditor General’s Department separately confirmed it has initiated its own audit into the incident in which cybercriminals siphoned USD 2.5 million from the General Treasury.
The audit opens a new institutional accountability track parallel to the CID’s forensic probe and the COPF’s parliamentary review, addressing the Free Lawyers’ demand a week earlier for transparency on the investigation’s findings.
