IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

In accordance with an agreement involving the project implementing agency, the International Migration Organization (IOM), specific work would have to be complete by end of September this year.

Experts from Australia and Hong Kong are preparing feasibility reports on implementing biometric passports, said Immigration and Emigration Controller Chulananda Perera.

Introducing the ‘N’ series of passports, installing new equipment in the Documentation Examination Laboratory where the legality of passports and visas are examined and mainly used by airline officials and the CID, introducing an electronic travelling system and issuing visas online are the other suggestions and concepts submitted, Mr. Perera said, “We are rapidly working towards the practice of issuing visas online without delay,” he said.

The Minister said so while participating as Chief Guest at the e-Swabhimani 2011 Awards presentation held at Water s Edge in Colombo last Tuesday.

Continuing the address the Minister said that through the budget His Excellency the President had assigned a pivotal role to ICT and the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA).

In his address to the audience at the virtual event inaugurating Sri Lanka Internet Day 2021 held on the 6th and 7th of April, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pledged to set up a Citizen Centric Digital Government for the convenience of Sri Lanka’s citizens.

Stressing on the fact that a technology based society pillar cannot be overlooked, the president stated that Citizen Service Centres will soon adopt new technology for public service delivery.

Sri Lanka is now on its way towards digital transformation via organisational overhauling driven by technology to enter onto the global stage, Technology Minister Kanaka Herath said.

The Government has already allocated Rs. 3 billion or 1.4 per cent of total expenditures to digital and digitalisation efforts in 2024, with the aim of growing into a US$15 billion digital economy by 2030, he disclosed.

Following the establishment of an Independent Procurement Commission under the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, The Ministry of Finance is considering the introduction of an Electronic Government Procurement system to make the procurement process more transparent and corruption free.

The idea for electronic government procurements are not new and in 2014, the Ministry of Finance Annual report stated, “The government recognises the usefulness of implementing an Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) system which could help increase transparency, easy access to information, increase competition and lower cost. The World Bank, ADB and other development partners recommend the introduction of electronic procurement as they are willing to provide technical assistance to implement e-GP in Sri Lanka.”

Further elaborating he said that, "there is no point of being fearful of fingerprints, because when issuing passports and driving licences fingerprints are normally taken in accordance with the stipulated criteria". "Moreover, fingerprint machines are also widely in use amongst government and private sector organizations and many foreign countries", he also mentioned.

The department said the e-NIC concept was brought forward by the government due to security concerns. But it was still being discussed and had to be finalized.

“There definitely will be a change from the manual NIC to the digintal ones soon,” DRP Commissioner General, Jagath P. Wijeweera said. He explained that the LTTE and other groups had found it easy to forge the NIC during the war due to it being manually handled.

He said small tea estate owners will be provided training on using e-services.

He was speaking at the National Conference on the Role of ICT in Reconciliation at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS) in Colombo. Dewapura said, “We are now able to reach all parts of the country. We can use ICT to accelerate this process and take the true benefit of development to them.”

A pilot project is already underway at the Karawanella Hospital and another will begin on May 20 at the Mawanella Hospital, according to ICTA Project Manager of the ‘Multi Disease Surveillance System’ Shriyananda Ratnayake. “This project will keep electronic records of patients visiting hospitals anywhere in the country and make information available to doctors to aid them in their diagnosis, prescription and patient care,” he said.

These people are said to favour calling GIC's 1919 telephone number for information on access train schedules, foreign employment opportunities, crop prices, etc. It has also resulted in GIC having received over 5 million calls so far, including 1.3 million calls in total in 2010 and 1.5 million calls expected by end-2011, according to Wasantha Deshapriya, the Programme Head for the Re-engineering Government unit at Sri Lanka's Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), the organisation overseeing GIC.

People will now have the opportunity to obtain important public services from Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka, Department of Examinations, National Water Supply and Drainage Board, Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment, Sri Lanka Railways, Sri Lanka Tea Board, Merchant Shipping Division, Department of Labour, Department of Government Factory and the Department of Motor Traffic via online or mobile through the Government eServices initiative.

The Sri Lankan government should implement an e-procurement system that would save large amounts of money for the government. Further, it could be used for the betterment of the public, Verité Research analyst Rehana Mohammed, said.

"E-procurement will provide major efficiency gains for both government agencies and suppliers. It can significantly ease the administrative burden on government agencies in managing the tender process. For example, they can publish tenders, register suppliers, and process bids through a single online platform," Mohammed told The Island Financial Review.

• Five year project aims conversion of half a million three-wheelers from petrol to electrically operated modes of transport to promote low carbon e-mobility solution

The first set of a planned 500,000 converted eTuk-Tuks was put to the road by the Government in partnership with the United National Development Program (UNDP) as part a drive to promote low carbon emobility solution.

“At home in Sri Lanka, our own achievements in MDGs are noteworthy. We are on track to reaching most MDGs. According to UNDP, Sri Lanka is considered to be an early achiever on 10 of the 21 indicators, including those related to the goals of universal primary education and gender equality. Sri Lanka is also expected to meet the goals of maternal health and HIV/AIDS”, he said.

It is customary to assess aspects of the performance of a country using composite indices such as the Ease of Doing Business Index or the Network Readiness Index. For government services, the indicator of choice is the e-Government Development Index (EGDI), published every two years by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Partly because of the complexity of the methodology, whereby the weights for different elements change with every iteration, and partly because some governments have begun to game the system, the rankings fluctuate significantly. Nepal, which ranked 150th in 2008, fell as far back as to the 165th spot by 2014. It came in at 117th in the most recent ranking of 2018. Bangladesh’s worst performance was in 2012 (150th). Its best performance was in the most recent ranking (115th).

Speaking at a workshop, Mr. Deshaepriya attested that an insight into the e-Government policy and improvement of leadership qualities and team spirit contributed greatly to implementing the e-Government policy successfully. Therefore, with the linking of the North of Sri Lanka will bridge the communication gap between the North and South, he said.

Disclosing further steps ensuing from the gazette notification and the importance of the NCA, ICTA Chairman, Senior Presidential Advisor and Peradeniya University Chancellor Prof. P. W. Epasinghe said: "A unit is being established within ICTA with the support of the professional expertise available within ICTA and the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) to implement the additional obligations imposed on ICTA under the Electronic Transaction Act.

The other winners under e-Governance were Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries in the Indian state of Jharkhand, Mid-day Meal Authority of Uttar Pradesh, India and the Indian project of Patwari Online Assessment.