The Island
JVP parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday said that the issue of e-nic (Electroni National Identity Card) will be delayed for years as the government had cancelled a tender granted for project.
In a special statement in Parliament, MP Dissanayake said that the tender had been cancelled by the President on his own without considering the consequences that it would delay the process of issuing the new identity cards for several more years.
The project was carried out by the Public Administration and Home Affairs Ministry through the Department of Registration of Persons. Tenders were called from International bidders following a Cabinet decision in January 2008. The tenders were called in June 2008, and eleven companies had submitted their tenders.
The companies whose bids were not approved had been given another opportunity to forward their appeals and to bring them to the attention of the Cabinet of Ministers. At this Cabinet meeting the president had cancelled the awarding of tender. This decision has been taken arbitrarily and not even a Cabinet paper had been submitted in this regard to that meeting where the Prime Minister was absent, Dissanayake said.
It was revealed later that the President’s decision was taken on recommendation of two Information Technology employees attached to the President’s Office. “We want to know why the recommendation of these two had been given priority over the report of the Technical Evaluation Committee.
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake in reply, said that not a single act of corruption or graft will be allowed in this e-nic project and he had already advised ministry officials to take action in that regard. He said that the tender was to be awarded to a bid for Rs. 4,550 million. A single ID card would cost Rs. 119/10. He was present at the Cabinet meeting when the tender was cancelled, he said.