COPE finds ICTA a drain on public purse

By Saman Indrajith

An investigation conducted by the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) has revealed that the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (Pvt) Ltd (ICTA) drained public funds running into billions on failed projects.

The COPE inquiry on Tuesday found that the e-Pension Project initiated by the ICTA at a cost of Rs 278.54 million had come a cropper.

The ICTA was entrusted with the responsibility of procuring the hardware and software for the project using government funding to 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 Defence. However, given various software and hardware issues, the project was not implemented countrywide and abandoned on Nov 1, 2013 causing a loss of Rs 278.54 million.

Parliament sources said that the COPE investigation had found that the Google Loon Project intiated by Harin Fernando was also among the listed projects of ICTA. Although the Google Loon project to provide Internet access countrywide had not been executed, the ICTA had suffered over one-billion-rupee loss on the project. Rs. 1,851,322 had been spent to get the Google Loon equipment released from the customs, the COPE inquiry has revealed Another Rs. 6,427,941 was spent on project promotions.

The COPE investigation chaired by Prof. Charitha Herath was attended by Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, State Ministers Susil Premajayantha, Indika Anuruddha and MPs Eran Wickramaratne, Jagath Pushpakumara, Premnath C. Dolawatta, S.M. Marikkar, Patali Champika Ranawaka and Shanakiya Rasamanickam.

It was also found that Rs. 850.47 million had been approved and Rs. 148.33 million spent on another failed project titled Lanka Government Network (LGN) launched by ICTA under the yahapalana government.

The LGN launched to enhance efficiency of the public service by bringing all state institutions under one umbrella network had also failed, sources said.

MP Patali Champika Ranawaka pointed out that the ICTA amidst the failure after failure continued to launch more than 500 other similar projects adding to the losses.

It was also revealed that the Rs. 32.5 mn spent on the procurement of the project by the National Intellectual Property Office under the name ‘e-NIPO’ had been utilised by the ICTA to pay salaries of its officials.

It was disclosed that a previously failed project called ‘e-Local Authorities’ had been re-launched in 2016. The investigation revealed that Rs. 39 million had been spent as at Dec 31, 2017, but that amount had not been included in the performance reports.

COPE Chairman Prof. Herath pointed out that ICTA 2017 corporate plan had cost Rs. 2,737,000, but been discarded later.

Prof. Hearth directed ICTA senior officials to conduct their own investigation from 2003 to 2019 with regard to the issue of corporate plans and report back to the COPE. He had also instructed the officials to initiate legal action against those responsible for the losses, Parliament sources said.