Verité Research, “fact checking” and protecting interests of financial elites in Sri Lanka

THE Debt Restructuring Agreement (DRA) entered into by the National People’s Power Government is disastrous for Sri Lanka. This is a fact that has been confirmed repeatedly by globally reputed economists such as Jayatil Ghosh, C.P. Chandrasekhar, Changar Bouge, former Staff Economist of the United States Department of the Treasury Brad Sester, as well as Sri Lankan economists such as Dhanusha Gihan Pathirana, Kalpa Rajapakse and Amali Wedagedera.

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In my role as a trade unionist and an Executive Committee member of the People’s Struggle Alliance, with a deep interest in the welfare of ordinary Sri Lankans, I have echoed this broad acceptance that the DRA is bad for Sri Lanka. Verité Research, a registered company and a thinktank, recently decided to make social media spectacle out of a statement I made at the same event. At a public meeting for the People’s Struggle Alliance on 8 December 2024, I said:

“Usually, public debt is reduced during debt restructuring. In Sri Lanka, we are going to repay more of the existing debts to the creditors.”

Verité’s ‘Fact Check’ debunked months ago a defamatory series of posts in and around 27 March 2025, declaring this statement as ‘false’ on Instagram, Facebook and X, and their own website. In an email sent to me signed by the ‘FactCheck.lk Team’ of Verité Research, I was also given the following firm instruction:

Verité Research debunked months ago

“In light of the inaccuracies identified in the claim, we kindly encourage you to consider issuing a statement to clarify or correct the claim, using the analysis provided by FactCheck.lk.”