Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts (COPA), Kabir Hashim, said if there is an official request for the Committee to look into the alleged US$ 2.5 million diversion linked to a Government payment to an Australian party, and if it is deemed necessary, the Committee will proceed without bias.
When queried by The Daily Morning yesterday (4) as to whether COPA would look into the issue, he said: “I have not received an official request or a petition or anything. Usually, we take up cases based on requirements.” Commenting on the request made by the 'Free Lawyers' organisation that the COPA investigate the issue, he said: “I saw it on social media, but I haven’t received any hard copies yet. When we receive it, we will look at the content and take necessary action. If there is an official request and if we see that there is a necessity, certainly we will do our job without any bias.”
The remarks come in the wake of a request by the Free Lawyers organisation for COPA to intervene in the matter. Former Governor Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon said the organisation had called for the Auditor General’s intervention through the COPA, urging that an open meeting be convened during the upcoming Parliamentary week and that a sub-committee be appointed to carry out a detailed investigation.
The Free Lawyers organisation was the first to raise concerns about the alleged diversion of funds, which has drawn significant public attention. The incident involves a suspected cyber fraud in which funds meant for an Australian creditor were diverted after electronic mail communications linked to the payment were interfered with, despite the transaction being processed through official Treasury systems.
Tennakoon also criticised the handling of the matter by the Parliamentary Committee on Public Finance (COPF), claiming that it had failed to carry out its responsibility and instead allowed the issue to be delayed without proper scrutiny. He alleged that the COPF meeting held on 30 April focused on an inaccurate narrative involving a hacker.
He further charged that granting the Finance Ministry a one-month period to submit the relevant documents was unjustified, claiming that such documents should already be available and could be produced without delay.