The Welfare Benefits Board has taken legal action against 14 government officials accused of misappropriating Aswesuma welfare payments at divisional secretariats around the country.
Board Chairman Nimal Kotawelagedara said investigations found that the officials had diverted Aswesuma funds into their own bank accounts.
Nationwide investigation since 2023
The findings come out of a nationwide investigation into alleged irregularities and fraud in the payment and distribution of welfare benefits at divisional secretariat level, covering the period since 2023 — the year the Aswesuma scheme began paying beneficiaries.
Both legal and disciplinary action is being taken against officers attached to the Norwood Divisional Secretariat and several other divisional secretariat offices. At Norwood alone, the Chairman said, money was fraudulently transferred into the personal accounts of four officials.
Kotawelagedara said action would follow regardless of an officer’s position or rank, and urged public officials to stay clear of such schemes.
Grew out of the Norwood case
The national investigation follows the case at the Norwood Divisional Secretariat in the Nuwara Eliya District, where two officials were arrested and remanded at the start of August. The sum under investigation there later rose from about Rs. 3 million to Rs. 16.2 million, with five officers implicated.
Separately, an audit committee under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is being appointed to examine welfare and relief payments at all 10 divisional secretariats in the Nuwara Eliya District for the period 2023 to 2026. That district-level audit covers Cyclone Ditwah disaster assistance, Samurdhi relief and senior citizens’ allowances alongside Aswesuma.
Aswesuma is the government’s main means-tested welfare programme, replacing Samurdhi as the primary income-support scheme, and its payments are administered through divisional secretariats.
