The Road Development Authority is at the center of a massive financial contradiction as the Deputy Minister of Transport and Highways denies any overpayments while the Bank of Ceylon admits to a staggering Rs. 263 million duplication error. This conflict between government rhetoric and banking reality has sparked a firestorm of controversy over the transparency of state infrastructure funds.
Deputy Minister Prasanna Gunasena held a high-stakes media briefing in Battaramulla yesterday to dismiss allegations of a Road Development Authority scam. He explicitly stated that “not a single cent” had been overpaid to contractors, branding accusations from the Opposition as blatant lies. However, a leaked communication from the Bank of Ceylon (BOC) tells a far more troubling story.
While the Minister insists that all accounts are reconciled and that no improper payments were made, BOC has officially informed the RDA of a catastrophic system failure. According to the bank, a duplication error on January 23, 2026, caused over Rs. 26 crore to be transferred twice to multiple contractor accounts. This directly contradicts Gunasena’s assertion that the RDA’s main and related accounts remain untouched by irregularities.
The issue stems from transaction data originally processed in December 2024, which was inexplicably reprocessed over a year later. This massive Bank of Ceylon error resulted in Rs. 263,529,072.11 being drained from an internal bank account. While the bank has managed to claw back some of the cash, over Rs. 51 million remains missing in the hands of private construction firms.
The list of recipients includes several high-profile construction entities across multiple commercial banks. Accounts at NDB, Sampath Bank, Commercial Bank, People’s Bank, and Amana Bank—belonging to firms such as Sintha Construction, Rakshi Construction, and Gama Construction—were credited with the duplicated funds. This raises concerns about how the Minister could claim “reconciled accounts” while a major state bank is actively pleading with the RDA to help recover millions in lost capital.
During his briefing, Gunasena challenged Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Nalin Bandara to provide factual proof of irregularities. However, the bank’s own internal reports now provide exactly that. The Assistant General Manager of Central Operations at BOC has reportedly requested the RDA to coordinate with these private institutions to retrieve the outstanding Rs. 51 million, proving that an overpayment did, in fact, occur.
This verbal showdown highlights a dangerous gap in communication between the government and the financial sector. If the Ministry of Highways is unaware of a Rs. 263 million banking blunder involving its own contractors, it suggests a severe breakdown in oversight. Conversely, if the administration is aware but choosing to deny it, the political fallout could be devastating.
What happens next could be critical for the credibility of the JVP-NPP administration’s “clean” image. The public is now left wondering whether this was a genuine technical glitch or a more systemic failure within the Road Development Authority’s financial ecosystem. As the Opposition prepares to take the matter to Parliament, the pressure is mounting for the government to explain why the Minister said one thing when the bank clearly said otherwise.
