Was it:
- Utter incompetence?
- Reckless negligence?
- Direct involvement and connivance?
- Conscious aiding and abetment?
The Central Bank, through its Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), operates a highly sophisticated system designed to detect and address suspicious financial transactions. These systems were first introduced in 2006/2007 by Ms. Mala Dayaratne, who served as Director of IT at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) at the time, under the leadership of then-Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal.
Since then, the systems have been continuously upgraded and enhanced with technical assistance from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the United States. As a result, these internationally accepted and advanced systems have become highly sophisticated, capable of detecting transaction patterns based on amounts, individuals, banks, time slots, counterparties, repetition, and numerous other parameters.
When unusual or suspicious patterns are identified and flagged, they are escalated to the relevant levels of management. Serious cases are brought to the attention of the Governor and, potentially, the Monetary Board or Governing Board. This is why even repeated transactions involving relatively modest sums such as around Rs. 900,000 are often questioned by clearing banks, which must respond to FIU inquiries.
Given this, it is difficult to comprehend how the reported NDB loss of Rs. 13,200 million could have gone undetected by the FIU. It is now emerging that the siphoning of funds allegedly occurred via CEFTS transactions of approximately Rs. 5 million each. This would imply at least 2,640 similar transactions executed over a period of several months.
Under such circumstances, it is highly unlikely that the FIU would not have been alerted, or that the Governor would not have been informed.
This raises a critical question: why was no action taken by the Governor and the Central Bank in response to what appears to be a clear pattern of repeated suspicious transactions? What explains the apparent silence and inaction?
