Sri Lanka, July 24 -- The revelation before Parliament's Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) that nearly US$715 million may have been remitted overseas using allegedly false import documents is not merely another financial irregularity. It is a matter that strikes at the heart of Sri Lanka's economic governance. If substantiated, it represents one of the largest illicit outflows of foreign exchange in recent history at a time when every dollar has become precious to a nation emerging from bankruptcy.
The allegation, disclosed by senior police investigators, is that the money is believed to have originated from criminal enterprises, including drug trafficking, before being transferred abroad through fabricated import documentation. The sheer...