Sri Lanka cannot afford another episode of financial carelessness dressed up as administrative error. Not now. Not after the queues, the shortages, the tax hikes, the collapse of public confidence, and the painful sacrifices demanded from ordinary citizens in the name of economic recovery.
Yet, this is precisely the impression being created by the latest controversy of the alleged irregular disbursement of nearly Rs. 500 million in Aswesuma welfare funds. The allegations are deeply troubling on their own. But viewed alongside the unresolved questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of a $ 2.5 million Government payment in a recent cyber fraud scandal, they point to something far more serious. They suggest a dangerous erosion of fiscal discipline and institutional accountability at the highest levels of public finance management.
The Treasury is not flush with prosperity. It is surviving on the backs of taxpayers who are paying more than ever before. VAT was increased. Electricity tariffs surged. Small businesses folded under pressure. Professionals left the country in large numbers. Families cut down meals and medicine while being told these hardships were necessary to stabilise the economy.
The Government repeatedly insists that every rupee matters. If that is true, then how can hundreds of millions of rupees allegedly be disbursed outside proper procedures? How can welfare payments intended for struggling families end up duplicated, inflated, or transferred without adequate safeguards?
These are not minor bookkeeping mistakes. Welfare schemes such as Aswesuma exist because millions of Sri Lankans are economically vulnerable. Every rupee wasted through negligence or incompetence is money denied to another family genuinely in need. Worse still, every scandal involving public funds destroys confidence in the very institutions responsible for rebuilding the country’s battered economy.
The allegations made by the Free Lawyers are serious enough to warrant immediate and transparent scrutiny. If close to 1.83 million families were due to receive benefits, the scale of the operation itself demanded the highest standards of oversight. Instead, the organisation alleges that payments were made in violation of institutional procedures, financial regulations, and proper checks and balances.
That alone should alarm Parliament.
The Treasury is not a village co-operative society. The Welfare Benefits Board is not a private charity. These are State institutions entrusted with public money during one of the worst economic crises in Sri Lanka’s history. If established financial procedures were bypassed, the public deserves to know who authorised it, why it happened, and whether this was incompetence, recklessness, or something more sinister.
Equally concerning is the Government’s apparent inability to reassure the public that the systems protecting State finances are functioning properly. First came the shocking revelation surrounding the missing $ 2.5 million payment allegedly linked to cyber fraud. Now comes another scandal involving possible overpayments and weak financial controls.
At some point, citizens are entitled to ask whether the public finance system is operating with the seriousness expected of a country trying to convince the world that it has learned from its economic collapse.
International lenders, investors, and development partners are not blind to these developments either. Sri Lanka is still dependent on external confidence. Fiscal responsibility is not merely an accounting issue. It is a credibility issue. Every scandal involving Treasury funds damages the country’s reputation at a time when economic trust is desperately needed.
The most disturbing aspect of these controversies is the pattern they reveal. When financial irregularities emerge, the response often appears reactive rather than preventative. There is always talk of investigations after the damage is done. There are committees, statements, and technical explanations. But where were the safeguards beforehand? Where was the internal oversight? Where were the accountability mechanisms that should have prevented such incidents in the first place?
The call for a Parliamentary inquiry is therefore not unreasonable. Parliament controls public finance under the Constitution. It cannot remain silent while serious allegations emerge regarding the handling of taxpayer money.
But an inquiry alone is not enough. Sri Lanka requires a fundamental change in the culture of public financial management. Treasury operations cannot function on assumptions, weak supervision, or outdated systems vulnerable to abuse and error. There must be professional accountability, independent oversight, modern digital safeguards, and consequences for negligence.
At the same time, any recovery of excess Aswesuma payments must be handled with humanity. Poor families should not be punished for failures within the State machinery. If overpayments occurred through no fault of beneficiaries, the burden must fall on the institutions and officials responsible for the lapse.