PARLIAMENT

It was revealed at the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) committee meeting held yesterday (08), that the e-Pension Project initiated by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (Pvt) Ltd (ICTA) at a cost of Rs. 232 million is a complete failure.

ICTA was entrusted with the responsibility of developing the hardware and software for the project using government funding to initially provide pension online to the pensioners of the Western Province covering the District Secretariat, the Armed Forces, the Department of Prisons, the Department of Railways and the Department of Civil Defense. However, given various software and hardware issues, the project was not implemented island wide and was abandoned on the 1st of November 2013.

COPE also revealed that Rs. 278.54 million has been dissipated by ICTA as a result and that the situation is no different when considering the other failed projects.

Accordingly, though the Google Loon project by ICTA with the objective of providing internet access island wide wasn't executed, COPE revealed that Rs. 1,851,322 (1.8Mn) have been spent to release Google Loon equipment from the customs & Rs. 6,427,941 (6.4 Million) have been spent for project promotions, thus falling under the list of its failed projects.

The aforesaid issues were raised at the COPE yesterday (08) which was chaired by (Prof.) Charitha Herath in Parliament.

Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, State Ministers Susil Premajayantha, Indika Anuruddha and Members of Parliament Eran Wickramaratne, Jagath Pushpakumara, Premnath C. Dolawaththa, S. M. Marikkar, Patali Champika Ranawaka and Shanakiya Rasamanickam marked their presence at the meeting.

COPE disclosed that Rs. 850.47 million had been approved and only Rs. 148.33 million had been spent for the project “Lanka Government Network” (LGN) launched by ICTA in 2016 with the aim of establishing an efficient government service by connecting government institutions through a network. The committee revealed that the progress of the project was 17% nevertheless.

The aforesaid failures were strongly condemned by the COPE where MP Patali Champika Ranawaka questioned if the ICTA was planning to launch more than 500 other projects while showing such failure. It was also revealed that the Rs. 32.5 mn spent for the procurement of the project by the National Intellectual Property Office under the name 'e-NIPO' has been utilized by the ICTA to pay salaries of its officials. Therefore, the COPE Chairman pointed out the need of formulating a formal mechanism to regulate such financial matters.

It was disclosed that the project launched under the name ‘e-Local Authorities’ which had failed was re-launched in 2016. Although Rs. 39 million had been spent as at the 31st of December, the fact that it had not been included in the performance reports since then was subjected to the strong displeasure of the committee.

COPE chairman also revealed that the 2017 corporate plan which was made at a cost of Rs. 2,737,000 mn has been discarded without being forwarded for approval. Thus, the COPE chairman directed ICTA to conduct an investigation from 2003-2019 and provide with a report on this regard.

The COPE was also dissatisfied with the recruitment of officials under contract basis to senior positions of ICTA. Therefore, the COPE pointed out the need to create several key positions on a permanent basis along with a proper hierarchy within the ICTA.

Taking legal action against any officials who have committed any form of corruption or wrongdoing was also recommended by the COPE chairman.