By Adolf
“Those who come to power without preparation will first strengthen their own house before they strengthen the republic.”
— Niccolò Machiavelli
The AKD-led National People’s Power (NPP), which rose to prominence on a platform of uncompromising anti-corruption rhetoric, is now engulfed in a relentless cycle of scandal. The moral high ground is fast eroding, replaced by a growing perception that this administration is no different—if not more troubling—than the regimes it once condemned.
The pattern is unfortunately not unfamiliar. From the slipped shipping container controversy to the coal procurement debacle that forced a minister’s resignation, and now to questionable fuel purchases, the accumulation of issues points not to isolated lapses but to systemic governance failure. Equally troubling are the personal financial trajectories of certain figures once seen as embodiments of ideological purity. Minister K.D. Lalkantha’s reported wealth being revised from Rs. 460 million to Rs. 80 million only underscores the opacity surrounding asset declarations. To add to the list is Wasantha Samarasinghe, Vijitha Herath and more.
Yet the latest scandal—the so-called ‘hacker incident’—threatens to shatter the state’s last line of credibility entirely. Allegedly, $2.5 million in public funds was diverted to an unknown entity under the guise of a cyber breach. In a country where foreign exchange is scarce, this sum—nearly 10% of the annual education budget—vanishing into a digital void is alarming. The NDB heist of 13.2 Billion adds to the crisis of confidence.
The official narrative has been met with widespread criticism . How could such a large payment bypass basic verification protocols, even when a small bank transaction requires multiple checks? Why was there a three-month delay between the Treasury’s knowledge of the issue in January and a police complaint in March? And why did it take an external group of lawyers to stumble upon the transaction? The politician turned bureaucrat Treasury Secretary’s explanation—that public disclosure would have driven hackers into hiding—defies all logic in the banking industry . Hackers operate outside public visibility; silence does not aid capture. They need to picked up before they do more damage.
Hide and seek
This hide-and-seek method has given rise to a darker hypothesis: that the hacker story is a smokescreen for internal fraud. While unproven, the absence of safeguards lends it plausibility. The burden of proof now rests heavily on the government.
The political implications are significant. Finance falls directly under the President, and the Treasury Secretary is a party loyalist. The NPP’s legitimacy was built on doing things differently—not on deflecting blame to past regimes. That promise is now being tested.
Every dollar lost is a blow to the recovery trajectory. If IMF targets on GDP growth and reserves continue to be missed, the government may be forced into a humiliating renegotiation of the bailout, resetting years of progress.
The $2.5 million incident carries another risk: a missed payment to a creditor. Had that not been rectified, Sri Lanka could have technically defaulted again—a disaster for credit ratings and investor confidence.
Critical Juncture
AKD now stands at a critical juncture. The accumulation of scandals, erosion of trust, and economic pressures have converged into a moment of reckoning. Will the government confront these challenges with transparency and hold its own ranks accountable? Or will it succumb to the same obfuscation it once railed against? For a party built on total integrity, the stakes could not be higher. The time for rhetoric has passed. What remains is the test of action. A few more scandals, and the government can kiss its future goodbye—and brace for the next wave of retribution.
