Colombo, Apr 25 (PTI) Sri Lanka’s main opposition SJB on Saturday turned the heat on the government over the loss of USD 2.5 million due to hacking of the Finance Ministry account.
Harsha de Silva, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) legislator who heads Parliament’s Committee on Public Finance (COPF), told reporters that the Secretary to the Treasury and Finance Ministry Harshana Suriyapperuma would be summoned for questioning.
“They will have to answer,” de Silva said, adding that it was a serious lapse on the part of the Finance Ministry.
The secretary to the Treasury this week confirmed that USD 2.5 million from the Treasury account meant for a foreign debt repayment to Australia was hacked in January. This was a part payment of USD 22.9 million debt settlement.
“This appears to be more of a fraud than a hacking. We call for the appointment of a parliamentary select committee to investigate the whole incident. Then we will be able to prove if it was a hacking as the government claims,” Sajith Premadasa, the main opposition leader, said.
The opposition lawyer group said they would urge the governor of the Central Bank also to issue a statement on the loss.
Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne said the matter would be thoroughly investigated to ascertain the group responsible for hacking and the recovery of the loss.