COPE faults ICTA for multiple failures

Glocal
By Editor_1
Committee on Public Enterprise chaired by Prof Charitha Herath interviewing officials online for the first time – Parliament of Sri Lanka
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COLOMBO – The government’s lead information technology agency came under the microscope of the parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE) on Tuesday (8), with the members finding multiple issues of concern with multi-million rupee projects that hadn’t fully got off the ground.

In media statement issued on Wednesday (9), COPE deemed the Rs 232 million e-pension project initiated by the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) “a complete failure”, as it could not be implemented and was abandoned on November 1, 2013.

It said ICTA was “entrusted with the responsibility of developing the hardware and software for the project using government funding to initially provide pensions 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 Defence,” but could not implement the project because of “various software and hardware issues”.  The statement said ICTA had spent Rs 278.54 million on the project.

COPE also noted the Google Loon project, undertaken by ICTA to provide internet access island-wide wasn’t executed, despite spending Rs 1.8mn to release the equipment from customs and Rs 6.4mn for project promotions.

The Committee chaired by Prof Charitha Herath also found the 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 was only 17% operative though Rs 148.33 million of the Rs 850.47 million approved for the project had been utilized.

Other members of the Committee include 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 were in attendance.

The statement noted that the ICTA failures had been strongly condemned by the COPE Committee,  with MP Patali Champika Ranawaka questioning if the Agency was planning to launch 500 other projects while showing such failure.

The statement also revealed that COPE had found Rs 32.5mn meant for the procurement of the National Intellectual Property Office under the name ‘e-NIPO’ had been utilized by the Agency to pay salaries of its officials,  pointing out the need to formulate  a formal mechanism to regulate such financial matters.

COPE members had also expressed strong displeasure over the re-launch of the failed ‘e-Local Authorities’ project in 2016, and failure to include the Rs 39 million spent on the project in the performance reports since then.

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

Among other issues of concern was the recruitment of officials under contract basis to senior positions’.  The COPE chair pointed out the need to create several key positions on a permanent basis along with a proper hierarchy within the agency, while instructed legal action be taken against any officials found to have  committed any form of corruption or wrongdoing.

-ENCL/economynext.com

 

 

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