A three-member World Customs Organization (WCO) delegation from its Integrity Technical Sub-Committee, led by Andrea Hampton, met Secretary to the President Nandika Sanath Kumanayake at the Presidential Secretariat on June 2 to review Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption architecture, with particular focus on the country’s network of Internal Affairs Units (IAUs).
Sri Lanka has now established 360 IAUs across public institutions — covering all line ministries, chief secretariats, departments, district secretariats and key state-owned enterprises — with plans to extend the model to all divisional secretariats and remaining public institutions during the rest of this year, Kumanayake told the delegation. He described IAUs as the operational backbone of the government’s drive to build “an ethical, accountable and corruption-free public service.”
A dedicated division at the Presidential Secretariat coordinates IAU rollout, trains officers on anti-corruption laws and procedures, and runs the digital platform the government has built to underpin the network. The platform handles complaint management, Action Plan reporting, meeting coordination, training records and data analytics, and feeds country-wide data back to the Presidential Secretariat for trend monitoring and compliance reporting.
Hampton, who heads the WCO delegation on a scoping mission with Sri Lanka Customs, commended the “IAU Digital Complaint Management System” and said it offered Sri Lanka Customs a valuable opportunity to strengthen its own internal controls. WCO officials also welcomed Sri Lanka’s broader integrity framework and signalled scope for continued collaboration with the Presidential Secretariat.
The visit gives the IAU programme its first international validation since the Presidential Secretariat brought Customs, Inland Revenue and Excise under direct anti-corruption review at a May 29 meeting, and complements the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan 2025–2029 framework that CIABOC and the Presidential Secretariat have been rolling out in parallel.
