Special committee to scrutinise corrupt IT deals
The new government is rounding up government IT projects amounting to at least US$4 billion that are ridden with corruption and malpractices and bring those perpetrators to book.
A senior National People’s Power (NPP) adviser told The Sunday Times Business on Thursday that they are trying to appoint a committee to look into these mismanagements in the IT sector. “IT is a focus area for us in trying to figure out the corruption in the past regimes. We have already spoken to several top-level IT practitioners to help us unravel these mysteries in government IT projects,” he said. He also noted the new government’s intent on revamping the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and SL CERT.
The National Identity Card (NIC) Project where the implementation of the new NIC system faced criticisms regarding delays, cost overruns, and allegations of corruption in contract awards to certain vendors will be thoroughly scrutinised, he said. The e-Sewa (Digital Governance), Sri Lanka’s Health Information System (HIS) etc, e-passport, online visa, and various projects aimed at automating public sector functions have been criticised for lack of proper planning and execution, resulting in wasted resources while ineffective outcomes will be looked at, the adviser said. Already, three government agencies – the Bribery and Corruption Authority, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Government Audit Bureau are investigating the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) after recently surfaced allegations of malpractices and corruption. The Department of Registrar of Companies (DRC) is seeing delays in incorporating companies despite the new IT system implemented with officials mismanaging the situation.
The adviser said that the team is getting information daily on these projects and various other issues are also reported. He also noted that most of these projects have violated the government procurement guidelines. “After setting up the special IT committee, we intend to go through each project and ultimately do a forensic audit on them.”
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