Sri Lanka makes key change to highest Treasury job, deputy minister is new Secretary

COLOMBO: President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Monday appointed a deputy minister, who was part of the top negotiating team with the International Monetary Fund on the ongoing bail out process, to the highest bureaucratic job at the Treasury.

Harshana Suriyapperuma was appointed the new Secretary to the Treasury to fill the vacancy created by the outgoing secretary's retirement, a statement from the President's Office said here.

Suriyapperum resigned from his post of Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning on Saturday, it said.

This is only the second instance in recent years when an incumbent minister is appointed as a bureaucrat. In 2021, a state minister resigned to become the governor of the central bank.

Suriyapperuma, a capital markets professional, was nominated to parliament in November after the National People's Power (NPP) victory and held the position of the deputy minister since then while being in the top negotiating team with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the on going bail out with the global lender.

He replaced Mahinda Siriwardena, who held the position of the Treasury Secretary from 2022 when the island nation faced its worst economic crisis.

Sri Lanka had plunged into the economic crisis when it declared sovereign default in mid-April of 2022, its first since gaining independence from Britain in 1948. After the then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned, Ranil Wickremesinghe took over and began negotiations with the IMF soon after. His government then clinched the bailout a year later in March 2023.

Siriwardena was credited as a key member of the team which engineered the economic turnaround from bankruptcy.

Therefore, experts pointed out that the position of secretary to the Treasury has added significance not only to direct fiscal policy but also to handle reforms as part of the IMF bail out conditions and the unresolved issue of the Trump tariffs.

NPP, the current ruling party, then in opposition, was critical of Siriwardena but retained his services when President Dissanayake won the September’s presidential election.

It is said that Dissanayake was keen on continuation of the recovery team which pulled the country out of bankruptcy.

Getting Suriyapperuma to resign his parliament seat and leave the ministerial job is being seen as a key strategic decision by Dissanayake on the continuation of the recovery effort.

Earlier on June 16, IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath on Monday, during her visit to Colombo, commended Sri Lanka's significant progress in economic reforms and emphasised the importance of maintaining momentum to ensure lasting stability and prosperity in the island nation.