Local lotteries to be overhauled with best practices
View(s):Sri Lanka’s lottery business is to be overhauled by introducing the best practices and principles of customer services to take it to the next level with new technologies, officials said.
The aim is to bring back the public confidence in state- owned lotteries institutions as the people were gradually distancing from buying lotteries due to certain recent arbitrary actions by the authorities.
The increase in the price of a lottery by Rs.10 which prompted a 5-day agitation by lottery sales agents in January this year for not increasing their commission had incurred a loss of Rs.300 million to government coffers, official data revealed.
Public confidence was further eroded with vesting of National Lotteries Board (NLB) and Development Lotteries Board (DLB) in the Foreign Ministry when Ravi Karunanayake was the minister.
The Finance Ministry is to take prompt action towards revamping the two lotteries boards to make the lottery business a truly customer oriented service, a senior official who wished remain anonymous told the Business Times.
Under this initiative, the procurement relating to the print and delivery of lottery tickets will be streamlined in order to prevent delays in printing and supply of the lottery tickets as well as improving its quality and credibility with necessary security features, he disclosed.
This action follows the Auditor General’s (AG) recent report on a special audit conducted on the procurement relating to the print and delivery of lottery tickets in 2016 to the NLB.
A new law will be devised to meet the present needs as the NLB was established under the Finance Act No.11 of 1963 53 years ago and amendments were made to several sections in 1997 and 1998.
The total printing cost of lottery tickets in 2016 was Rs. 609.85, million according to the NLB.
According to the AG’s report in 2015, the NLB introduced new criteria with the concurrence of the Department of Public Finance for the selection of lottery ticket printers. It was introduced to overcome problems related to lottery ticket printing which had been earlier identified by the NL B
The AG’s recent report revealed that the procurement process for the printing and delivery of lottery tickets for the Govisetha, Wasana Sampatha, Supiri Wasana Sampatha, Jathika Sampatha and the Supiri Delakshapathia lottery draws in 2016 had not been directed in a manner to ensure the prompt supply of services of high quality at minimum cost with high economic benefits.
It has not adhered to prescribed standards, specifications, laws, rules and regulations, providing fair, equal and maximum opportunity for eligible interested parties to participate in the procurement and ensuring transparency and consistency in the evaluation and selection procedure.
It has concluded that in passing the responsibility of printing of lottery tickets and the quality checks thereof to the printers themselves, the Board had not taken action to pay adequate attention to ensure the quality of lottery tickets and for the destruction process of the lottery tickets printed with defects.
According to the findings of the report the board has not taken action to hold prompt investigations into instances of damage caused to the image of the board and reached conclusion thereon and also on the grant of subcontracts and the breach of agreement by printers.
The number of lotteries which use the computerised draws by the end of January 2017 had been nine and there were two instant lotteries.
Six lottery ticket printers were connected with the process. The total cost incurred by the NLB in 2016 and the five preceding years for the printing of the tickets amounted to Rs.2.8 billion.
However NLB management says there had been no delays in printing and supply of the lottery tickets by the new printers thereby avoiding shortages in the market as it was done with the previous printers who had 13 million lottery orders in short supply as at October 15, 2016.
The tender for printing is carried out annually as against a 3-year period during the past the printers are rather alert and focused towards maintaining quality and delivery times, it said.