Friday Aug 14, 2026
Friday Aug 14, 2026
Thursday, 13 August 2026 00:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Parliament’s Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) Chairman MP Dr. Harsha de Silva said the death of a Treasury official following the recent debt payment controversy “need not have happened,” arguing that the Committee’s investigation found broader institutional failures rather than individual culpability.
Addressing officials from the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) recently at the start of the Committee’s review of the Finance Ministry’s 2025 Annual Debt Management Report, Dr. de Silva expressed condolences over the official’s death, describing it as “really, really unfortunate.”
The remarks follow the death of an Assistant Director attached to the Finance Ministry’s External Resources Department (ERD), who was found dead in Kuliyapitiya after being suspended, along with three other officials, pending a disciplinary inquiry into the $ 2.5 million cyber fraud involving an unauthorised external debt payment. Police said at the time the official was suspected to have died by suicide.
“If you read this report [on the $ 2.5 million phishing attack], you will realise that his life was taken in vain. Totally in vain. People may have made mistakes, but no mistake was worth a life,” he said.
Dr. de Silva said the CoPF’s report had identified shortcomings across several institutions involved in public debt management, including the Treasury, the PDMO, the ERD, and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), stressing that the Committee’s findings were not directed at a single individual.
“We found fault with you DG on certain matters. We found fault with DG ERD on certain matters. We found fault with operational people on certain matters. We found fault with the Secretary to the Treasury and the Governor of the CBSL on certain matters. There was no partisanship,” he said.
Referring to the deceased official, Dr. de Silva said: “He is almost exonerated in this report, if you really look at it. Absolutely, in my view, could have been avoided.”
He urged Finance Ministry officials to study the Committee’s findings and strengthen governance systems, operating procedures, and technical controls to prevent similar failures in the future.
MP Ravi Karunanayake said the PDMO required institutional protection to carry on their duties effectively and not expose themselves to costly errors and overbearing scrutiny and criticism.
He urged PDMO officials to “fortify” and “protect” themselves as they assume responsibility for managing the country’s debt portfolio, warning that borrowing decisions would inevitably be questioned.
He said Parliament wanted to ensure officials had the capacity, skills, and governance framework to make difficult decisions without being exposed to “unnecessary problems” later, arguing that stronger training and institutional safeguards were essential given the financial and legal risks associated with sovereign debt management.
