Corruption scandals and blunders of successive governments have bled the state coffers for decades. The Treasury has lost USD 2.5 million again owing to a compromised payment process, and its bigwigs and their political masters are all out to muddy the water. The Opposition is out for their scalps. It never rains but it pours. Scandals have been cropping up in quick succession under the current dispensation.
The JVP-NPP government is in the same predicament as a cantankerous, all-knowing backseat driver suddenly thrust behind the wheel on a treacherous road. Having talked the talk, it now has to walk the walk. Less than two years into office, it has many problems to contend with. The last few weeks have been particularly bad. It must be a fate worse than death for the JVP/NPP leaders, who came to power, condemning previous governments and promising good governance, to be accused of corruption by their political opponents who are known to be utterly corrupt.
The government was reeling from a coal procurement scam that led to the resignation of Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody and Energy Ministry Secretary Udayanga Hemapala, when an NPP propaganda stunt, aimed at boosting the images of the President and the Prime Minister as simple leaders, backfired, with a minister’s palatial house and unexplained assets coming to light. It has now been revealed that the JVP leaders who claimed that their lot was no better than that of the ordinary people are politicians of substantial means. Then, HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery dropped a bombshell. He revealed that Sri Lanka had paid the highest premium for oil in the world, recently. The government had to admit that it purchased diesel at USD 286 a barrel, to replenish stocks, thereby admitting, albeit unwittingly, that the substandard coal imports had led to a shortfall in electricity generation at Norochcholai, and diesel had to be imported at exorbitant prices to keep oil-fired power plants running to prevent power cuts. Now, it is under fire over the transfer of USD 2.5 million from the Treasury to a fake account.
The government has attributed the misdirected Treasury payment to a hacking scheme. But cyber security experts have dismissed this claim as a tall tale. The diversion at issue could not be a simple “hack” and it was rather a case of a compromised payment process, where weak verification layers, email-based instructions, and insufficient system segregation left room for fraud, a fintech expert has told The Island. The government has a penchant for obfuscating issues, but in doing so it only makes matters worse for itself. There is no way it can justify the inordinate delay in reporting the Treasury fraud to the police.
Treasury Chief Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma has claimed that the government kept the payment scandal under wraps lest the hackers should cover their tracks. The government seems to have a very low opinion of the intelligence of the public. Cyber criminals wipe out all traces of their illegal operations immediately after committing an offence, as is public knowledge. The government should have called in the CID immediately after realising that a misdirected payment had been made and maintained transparency in investigations. Instead, it ordered an internal inquiry. It is only natural that pressure is mounting on the Treasury Chief to step down. Fund transfers go through a layered authorisation process at the Treasury, and a few junior officials must not be scapegoated for the loss at issue. All senior officials who authorised the misdirected payment must be brought to book.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is also the Minister of Finance, claims to have information about all illegal transactions carried out by his predecessors, but he could not prevent a fraud in the Treasury under him.
It is doubtful that the government has taken cyber security seriously. It seems to think the task of preventing cybercrimes is as easy as carrying out social media attacks on its political opponents. The Opposition claims that the Treasury has suffered a huge loss because the officials who handled the fund transfers are not experienced and competent enough to perform such tasks. This allegation must not go uninvestigated. It is imperative that Parliament conduct a special probe into the Treasury fraud, and open it to the media. The public has a right to know what happened to their money, how the fraud happened, who is actually responsible, and what action will be taken to ensure the safety of state funds. It is hoped that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will not appoint a presidential commission to investigate all misdirected payments by state institutions since Independence.