Update — August 8: The sum under investigation has risen from Rs. 3 million to Rs. 16.2 million, and three more officers have been named. Details below.
Two female officials attached to the Norwood Divisional Secretariat have been remanded over the alleged misappropriation of money belonging to beneficiaries of the Aswesuma welfare programme — a sum police initially put at nearly Rs. 3 million.
The pair were arrested on August 1 by the Hatton Police Division’s Special Investigation Unit and produced before Acting Hatton Magistrate S. Parthiban, who ordered them remanded. One of the suspects had been in charge of the Aswesuma division at the secretariat, Ada Derana reported. Ada identified the two as a management assistant officer and a plantation community communication officer.
Investigators say a preliminary audit found that Aswesuma payments intended for beneficiaries were transferred instead to bank accounts belonging to relatives and acquaintances of the suspects, then withdrawn. Ada Derana reports the diversions ran between 2023 and 2025; Ada ties the money specifically to arrears from the first phase of payments made to low-income recipients in 2024.
Anonymous letter triggered the audit
The case surfaced after Nuwara Eliya District Secretary Thushari Thennekoon received an anonymous letter alleging that several Aswesuma beneficiaries under the Norwood secretariat had not received their payments. The two officials were transferred to other divisional secretariats in the district while a formal investigation began.
Norwood Divisional Secretary Sameera Gamlath lodged a complaint with police on July 31, and the arrests followed. A 10-member audit team drawn from the Nuwara Eliya District Secretariat and the Finance Ministry later confirmed that the fraud had taken place, and remains stationed at the secretariat. Statements have been recorded from all Grama Niladhari officers there and from several Aswesuma division staff.
Three more officials at the secretariat have since been suspended by the district secretary over alleged involvement.
Ada Derana reported that beneficiaries who came to the office asking about missing payments were told the funds would be credited if approved, and warned not to return.
Manjula Suraweera Arachchi, MP and chairman of the Nuwara Eliya District Coordinating Committee, said an urgent audit is being arranged to check whether similar fraud involving Aswesuma and Samurdhi payments has occurred at other divisional secretariats in the district.
Update — August 8: the figure more than quintuples
The Special Investigations Unit of the Hatton Police Division is now investigating a fraud of Rs. 16.2 million in Aswesuma funds at the Norwood secretariat, more than five times the sum first reported, the Daily Mirror reported.
Divisional Secretary Sameera Gamlath complained to police on August 6 that the scale of the fraud had grown to that figure and that three more officers are involved, beyond the two already arrested. That brings the number of officials implicated to five.
The two women arrested by Hatton Police at the start of the month have been remanded until August 11.
Audit officers from the District Secretariat and the Ministry of Finance examined Aswesuma payments for 2023 to 2025 to establish the fraud, and investigations are continuing. Statements are still being recorded from Grama Niladhari officers and secretariat staff.
Suraweera Arachchi said a further team of audit officers would be appointed to examine Aswesuma and Samurdhi payments — and the Rs. 5,000 relief allowance paid during the Covid-19 pandemic — across all ten divisional secretariats in the Nuwara Eliya district.
Sources: Ada Derana, Daily Mirror.
