Sri Lanka’s Anti-Corruption Amendment Is Now Law. The Transparency Test Starts Here

The Speaker has certified the Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Act No. 25 of 2026. Enactment settles the legislative question; it does not settle whether Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption system will become easier for citizens to scrutinise and harder for powerful actors to evade.

23 October 2026 • Lanka Witness Evidence Desk

Parliament announced that Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne endorsed the Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Bill on 19 October, bringing it into force as Act No. 25 of 2026. Parliament says the changes address legal, administrative and interpretative problems in the 2023 law, strengthen investigation and prosecution, improve the administration of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption and create a centralised electronic system for asset and liability declarations.

Those are important objectives. But an anti-corruption law is not proven by its title or by the number of powers it contains. The meaningful test is implementation: who must declare assets, what information becomes accessible, how quickly complaints are investigated, whether prosecutions are insulated from political pressure and whether outcomes can be measured publicly.

The constitutional history matters

Before enactment, the Supreme Court identified constitutional problems with parts of the amendment bill. Reporting on the determination said a proposed bail restriction would have required a special majority and referendum in its then form, while other provisions concerning asset declarations attracted constitutional scrutiny. The government subsequently amended the bill before passage. No referendum was held.

That sequence is a reminder that anti-corruption policy and civil liberties are not competing luxuries. Strong enforcement must coexist with judicial independence, equality before the law and due process. A government can strengthen investigators without making accusation equivalent to guilt.

Asset declarations need usable transparency

Parliament says the new law will streamline declarations through a central electronic system. That could improve compliance and administration. The public-interest question is what citizens, journalists and watchdogs can actually learn from the system, subject to legitimate privacy and security safeguards.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly announced anti-corruption initiatives. The credibility gap is therefore institutional. CIABOC and other authorities should publish regular, comprehensible statistics on declarations received, non-compliance, investigations opened, cases filed, recoveries, convictions and acquittals. Numbers should be accompanied by methodology so they cannot become public-relations figures detached from outcomes.

That standard should apply regardless of political identity. Recent high-profile arrests, including cases involving members of the Rajapaksa family, are allegations before courts and must be handled with the presumption of innocence. Anti-corruption enforcement becomes credible when the same evidential and procedural standard applies to allies, opponents and officials alike.

Lanka Witness assessment: Act No. 25 creates an opportunity, not a verdict. The strongest proof of reform will be a system where declarations are meaningfully auditable, investigations are independent, court outcomes are published and no political family or governing faction receives a different standard of justice.

Image: Grayswoodsurrey / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.