Residents in parts of Monaragala have accused officials attached to the Monaragala Divisional Secretariat of demanding commission payments in exchange for releasing disaster compensation funds and coercing recipients into handing over portions of their relief money.
One complainant alleged that a disaster relief services officer forcibly took a Rs. 100,000 commission from a Rs. 2 million cheque she had received. She told Ada Derana she was accompanied by officials to a bank where she was instructed on the exact amount to withdraw; after the cash was drawn, an officer took Rs. 100,000 from the proceeds as a “commission”.
She has since filed formal complaints with both the Monaragala Divisional Secretariat and the police. She further alleges that individuals connected to the accused officer subsequently pressured her to withdraw the complaint and provide false statements to investigators.
In a separate allegation, residents named the Grama Niladhari officer of Maduruketiya as having demanded commission payments from compensation recipients, with beneficiaries reportedly told their approvals would be withheld or reduced if they refused.
Further accusations include irregular distribution of payments, with some individuals said to have received funds despite not meeting eligibility criteria, while others allegedly received reduced amounts after paying commissions. Authorities have not yet issued an official response and investigations are expected to follow.
The allegations are the first publicly reported case of commission-extraction in the distribution of Cyclone Ditwah relief payments. Monaragala was among the worst-hit districts in the November 2025 storm, and disaster compensation has been a central plank of the government’s recovery effort, with Rs. 500 billion in promised project spending and a June deadline for displaced-family resettlement coordination announced this month.
In a later statement issued on the evening of May 17, the Department of Government Information said the Disaster Relief Services Officer at the centre of the complaints had been suspended from duty. The Grama Niladhari implicated in the same allegations has been transferred to another division to allow the investigation to proceed unhindered, and a formal inquiry into the incidents is currently underway. The administrative action is the first publicly disclosed government response to the alleged commission-extraction pattern.
