COPF report on foreign loan fraud reveals half the truth, alleges UNP

The report by the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) on the 2.5 million US dollar foreign loan fraud tells only half the truth, the United National Party alleged.

The United National Party (UNP), issuing a statement on the matter, highlighted that while the report completely details how hackers stole the money, it does not clearly reveal the high-level officials who enabled the act.

The UNP highlighted that computers do not authorise multi-million dollar transactions, as humans give those approvals.

The statement added that four mid-level officials faced interdiction while the report lightened its language for top management, describing their actions as coordination issues.

The External Resources Department used a 2016 email server whose support ended years ago, with security updates stopping completely a month before the hacking began.

According to the statement, KPMG and SL-CERT previously warned the Ministry of Finance that its IT system lacked multi-factor authentication, but top leadership ignored those warnings.

The government also kept the public in the dark for months under the guise of protecting investigations.

Furthermore, the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance refused to appear before the COPF when first summoned in April 2026.

The UNP alleges that the loss directly resulted from the Minister of Finance and the Ministry Secretary failing to oversee the transition of responsibilities from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to the Public Debt Management Office.