Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Namal Rajapaksa has insisted that the $2.5 million Treasury debt diversion scandal cannot be dismissed as a “technical error,” stressing that it raises serious questions of public finance accountability under the Public Finance Management Act No. 44 of 2024.
In a post on X, Rajapaksa pointed out that under Sections 4 and 28 of the Act, the Minister of Finance is responsible for fiscal oversight and authorising expenditure warrants, while under Sections 5, 29 and 36, the Secretary to the Treasury is tasked with operational control and safeguarding computerized public financial systems.
He argued that if warnings were raised and an unsecured system was still used to handle public funds, accountability cannot be separated between policy approval and administrative execution, and both levels must be examined.
“This is now a test of consistency and transparency in governance: will the same standards of accountability that are publicly stated be applied equally when a complaint is formally made, and names arise in an investigation?” Rajapaksa wrote.
He further recalled President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s statement on May 12 that if a person’s name arises in an investigation, a statement must be recorded “even from the President himself,” adding that no one is above the law.
“That principle must now be applied uniformly, without exception or delay,” Rajapaksa said. (Newswire)