Cabinet Spokesperson Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said that a State Bank had clarified the recent revelations regarding the double payment of Rs. 380 million by the Road Development Authority (RDA) to its contractors, stating  the issue had occurred during the Sri Lanka Inter-Bank Payment System file transmission, where the Bank had paid an additional amount to the contractors.

Dr. Jayatissa, clarifying the situation during the weekly Cabinet media briefing yesterday (28), said the Bank, however, had a system in place to reclaim the money. He said the Bank had noted that it had taken measures to reclaim the money. He stressed that the Bank had reassured its customers, as well as the Government, which had accounts with it, that their accounts had not been impacted by the issue, which had occurred on the part of the Bank.

Earlier, Director General of the RDA, H.H.N.A. Hettiarachchi, when contacted by The Daily Morning for comment on the issue, said the RDA had only paid its contractors on a single occasion 15 months earlier. He noted that it had been the RDA's Bank which had made the second payment during a transmission. “The RDA has made the payment only once,” he stressed.

The issue came to light when an allegation that over Rs. 380 million had been paid twice to contractors through the RDA system was raised in Parliament by Opposition Parliamentarian Nalin Bandara Jayamaha. He claimed that there had been serious irregularities involving duplicate payments to contractors.