The Island
Sri Lanka Freedom Party – Mahajana Wing leader MP Mangala Samaraweera said it had been estimated that Sri Lanka lost 210 billion rupees annually owing to corrupt practices during the last four years.
He said that the government had spent only 177 billion rupees on the war in 2009.
Parliamentarian Wijedasa Rajapakshe said that the Sri Lanka Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises’ (COPE) investigation had recorded that the country had lost more than 300 billion rupees because of corruption.
“In 2009, Sri Lanka for the first time in its history borrowed more than it generated and our total loans amounted to 850 billion rupees,” Rajapakshe said.
Every Sri Lankan was now in debt to the tune of 210,000 rupees, which had four years ago stood at 110,000 rupees, he said.