The legacy of Mahinda Siriwardana

THE illustrious former Central Banker cum technocrat Mahinda Siriwardana will end his highly impressive three-year-tenure as Secretary to the Ministry of Finance at the end of this month to assume duties in the post of Alternate Executive Director of the Asian Development Bank, representing Sri Lanka and six other countries.

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When the outgoing Treasury Secretary took over the coveted post in April 2022, Sri Lanka was going through the worst economic crisis in its post-independent history. At the time he took helm of the Treasury, Sri Lanka’s gross official reserves stood at $ 1,827 million while the usable reserves recorded a ridiculously low value of $50 million.

Prior to his move to the Treasury, the highly professional and soft-speaking bureaucrat functioned as the Deputy Governor of the Monetary Authority. When the former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa invited Nandalal Weerasinghe to take over the governor-ship of the Central Bank (CB), the latter insisted the former to assign the task of providing administrative leadership to the fiscal policy to Siriwardana as both erstwhile colleagues saw eye to eye on the reforms that were needed to rescue the economy.