Nearly two years after a bundle of cash worth Rs. 5 million disappeared from a secure vault inside the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), the incident remains unresolved, raising serious concerns about accountability, internal controls, and transparency at the country’s apex financial institution.
The shortage was discovered on 11 April 2023, during routine currency operations at the Central Bank. Officials detected that a bundle of Rs. 5,000 denomination notes, amounting to Rs. 5 million, was missing from a secure vault within the Bank’s premises.
The Central Bank responded by launching an internal investigation and lodging a complaint with the Fort Police. Nine days later, on 20 April 2023, the Bank issued a media statement acknowledging the incident.
However, the matter did not end there.
According to the 2024 audit report issued by the Auditor General’s Department, the investigation had failed to reach a conclusion even by 24 September 2024. The audit report states that no individual or party had been identified as responsible for the missing cash, and that the Rs. 5 million bundle had not been recovered.
This raises troubling questions.
A bundle of Rs. 5 million in Rs. 5,000 notes would contain 1,000 notes. It is not a small or concealable object. It is not something that could be slipped into a pocket unnoticed. Yet, despite the passage of more than two years, no explanation has been provided as to who removed the cash, how it was removed, or when exactly it occurred.
Equally critical is a question the public has yet to receive a clear answer to: How was the missing Rs. 5 million accounted for in the Central Bank’s books?
Was the loss written off? Absorbed internally? Covered through adjustments? The audit report does not clarify this, and the Central Bank has not publicly explained the financial treatment of the missing funds.
What makes the incident particularly sensitive is its timing. The disappearance occurred in 2023, when Ranil Wickremesinghe was serving as both President and Minister of Finance. While this incident is not comparable in scale to past financial scandals, it has nonetheless been described by critics as a daylight theft from the country’s most secure financial institution.
Central banks are expected to uphold the highest standards of security, internal control, and financial integrity. When cash goes missing from within a high-security vault and remains untraced for years public confidence is inevitably shaken.
As matters stand, the case remains under investigation, with no publicly identified suspect, no recovered cash, and no comprehensive explanation.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka owes the public a clear, credible, and transparent account of what happenedB not only to recover lost trust, but to demonstrate that even the most powerful institutions are not beyond scrutiny
