September 01, Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka’s adherence to transparency laws in large infrastructure projects funded by foreign loans and grants remains significantly lacking, according to a recent statement from Verité Research.
The law mandates that all projects exceeding USD 100,000 must disclose relevant information online; however, in 2024, the government fulfilled only 40 per cent of this obligation.
The findings, revealed in the 2024 update of the Infrastructure Watch dashboard on PublicFinance.LK—Sri Lanka’s foremost economic insights platform—underscore ongoing transparency challenges.
This platform has been monitoring the government’s compliance with the proactive disclosure requirements of the Right to Information (RTI) Act since 2022.
Public procurement, a frequent target of corruption in public spending, saw even poorer compliance.
The dashboard reported that only 20 per cent of the legally mandated procurement-related information for foreign-financed projects was disclosed, raising concerns about the integrity of these projects.
Subhashini Abeysinghe, an economist and Director at Verité Research, suggested that foreign lenders could improve transparency by tying project financing to the government’s compliance with the RTI Act.
She emphasised that increased transparency is beneficial not only for the Sri Lankan public but also for the foreign lenders and contractors involved.
“Greater transparency fosters fair competition, reduces corruption risks, and minimises reputational risks for lenders and contractors,” Abeysinghe noted.
The RTI Act, specifically Section 9, along with guidelines from the RTI Commission, requires the proactive disclosure of information across five key areas: project details, rationale and beneficiaries, budget and financial details, approvals and clearances, and procurement and contracts.
The 2024 assessment focused on compliance concerning 50 major infrastructure projects.
