- Fund still not legally established
- Rs. 9.8 b donated for rebuilding remains untouched
The Rebuilding Sri Lanka Fund, announced in the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah and promoted as the national vehicle for public and diaspora donations, has yet to be formally established, nearly 11 months after the disaster.
Senior State sources told The Sunday Morning Business that the Government was only now in the process of setting up the fund.
The disclosure means that billions of rupees donated by citizens, businesses, and Sri Lankans abroad, many of them responding to public appeals in the weeks after the cyclone, have been collected under the name of a fund that does not legally exist.
According to a response from the Presidential Secretariat previously received by The Sunday Morning Business, foreign currency donations totalling $ 11.49 million and local currency donations of Rs. 6.17 billion were received between 28 November 2025 and 23 April this year.
At the exchange rate cited by the secretariat – Rs. 316.46 to the US Dollar – the foreign currency receipts are worth about Rs. 3.63 billion, bringing total collections over the period to approximately Rs. 9.8 billion.
None of the money has been spent.
Asked whether any portion of the fund had been used and for a breakdown of expenditure, beneficiaries, and disbursement criteria, the Presidential Secretariat replied: “Not yet spent.”
The money is held in accounts under the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, according to the secretariat. Local currency donations were credited to accounts at the Bank of Ceylon (BOC), which received Rs. 3.97 billion, and People’s Bank, which received Rs. 2.16 billion, with a further Rs. 42.29 million deposited in a Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) rupee account.
Foreign currency donations were routed through CBSL accounts held with correspondent banks overseas, including in New York, Frankfurt, London, Tokyo, and Australia.
US Dollar receipts accounted for the largest share at $ 3.95 million, followed by BOC foreign currency receipts of $ 3.78 million and Australian Dollar contributions worth $ 1.85 million. Sterling donations amounted to $ 755,007, euro donations to $ 528,928, and yen donations to $ 423,228. Smaller sums came in Singapore Dollars and Korean Won.
On the fund’s operational status, including planned projects, the spending pipeline, and compliance with Sri Lanka’s commitments under its International Monetary Fund programme, the secretariat said only that matters “will be planned once the fund is established”.
The response raises questions about the governance of large public donations held outside a dedicated legal structure.
With no enabling legislation, no named oversight body, no published list of contributors, and no spending framework, there is at present no formal mechanism through which the public can track how the funds will eventually be allocated or to whom.