තවත් අපූරු ඡන්දයක් නිම විය. එය කරුණු රැසක් නිසා අපූර්ව වේ. සමහරු කියන පරිදි රදලයන්ගේ දේශපාලනයේ අවසානයක් (තාවකාලිකව හෝ) ඉන් සිදු විය. වැඩ කරන ජනයාගේ, නිර්ධන පංතියේ නායකයෙකු හා පක්ෂයක් බලයට පත් වීමද සුවිශේෂී වේ. රටේ මෙතෙක් සිදු වූ සකල විධ අපරාධ, දූෂන, භීෂන සොයා දඩුවම් කරනවා යැයි සමස්ථ රටවැසියා විශ්වාස කරන පාලනයක් ඇති විය. තවද, බහුතර කැමැත්ත නැති (එනම් 43%ක කැමැත්ත ඇති) ජනපතිවරයකු පත් විය. ජවිපෙ නායකයෙක් "තෙරුවන් සරණයි" කියා පැවසීමත් පුදුමය. මේ සියල්ල ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ පලමු වරට සිදු වූ අපූරු දේශපාලන සංසිද්ධි වේ. මාද විවිධ හේතුන් මත අනුරට විරුද්ධව මෙවර තර්ක විතර්ක, සංවාද විවාද, හා "මඩ" යහමින් ගැසූ තත්වයක් මත වුවද, ඔහු දැන් රටේ ජනපති බැවින් ඔහුට පලමුව සුබ පතමි. ඔහුට විරුද්ධව වැඩ කලත්, මා (කිසිදා) කිසිදු පක්ෂයකට හෝ පුද්ගලයකුට කඩේ ගියේද නැති අතර අඩුම ගණනේ මාගේ ඡන්දය ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමටවත් ඡන්ද පොලට ගියෙ නැත (ජීවිතයේ පලමු වරට ඡන්ද වර්ජනයක). උපතේ සිටම වාමාංශික දේශපාලනය සක්‍රියව යෙදුනු පවුලක හැදී වැඩී, විප්ලවවාදි අදහස්වලින් මෙතෙක් කල් දක්වා සිටි මා පලමු වරට සාම්ප්‍රදායික (කන්සර්වටිව්
Proposal for Adopting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Government of Sri Lanka (e-Gov Service)
Abstract
This document describes how ICT is to be adopted to integrate e-Government (e-Gov) into the traditional government service. The current traditional government service being less effective, less efficient, costlier, and more time-consuming, e-Gov will make the government service more accessible, more productive and more satisfactory to the Public. e-Gov will surely lessen the red-tape, increase the productivity of the State, and reduce the cost in terms of in terms of usage of electricity, space, and labor.
Specialty of This Proposal
There are unique and special properties of this proposal.
1.
The proposal is the most comprehensive because
it will change the life style of people in better ways and will entirely reform
the workflows of government service.
2. The implementation of e-Gov depends on very cheap and yet powerful “sticks computers” and hence the capital required is so “magically” minimal.
Objectives
Integrating e-Gov into the present traditional government
system aims to achieve the following objectives.
1.
Making the public or government service more
accessible to the general public.
2.
Making the process transparent to the general
public.
3.
Reducing red-tape and lethargy in the
traditional system.
4.
Removing the room for bribery, favoritism, and
other irregularities.
5.
Making the government service speedier.
6.
Reducing the cost to maintain the traditional
government service.
7.
Streamlining the workflow of any service
provided by the government.
8.
Making the government auditing of activities and
transactions of government bodies more effective, more enforceable, and
stringent.
9.
Minimizing the use of paper money and coins by
using electronic banking facilities like debit cards and direct debits.
10. Making the government service more greener in terms of resource usage.
Prerequisites
To implement a healthy e-Gov system, several pre-requirements must be met, and they, among others, are as mentioned below.
1.
The majority of the general public must be using
smart phones and/or computers.
2.
The majority of the general public must have
uninterrupted broadband access to the Internet (with guaranteed minimum QoS).
3.
The basic ICT/Internet literacy must be at or
above a certain level.
4.
The government must have a (SSL) Certificate
Server with its own Root Certificate.
5.
The Central Bank must introduce a local Debit
Card without affiliation to VISA, Master, or any other international brand to
be used across all the banks in Sri Lanka.
6.
Direct Debit system must be introduced in
banking system.
7.
Computerized Accounting system in banks must
have the “Read-only View” feature so that an authorized access (like Auditor
General) to such bank account can only view the account without the capability
to modify it.
8.
SMS notification of each and any bank
transaction, opening of bank account, issuing and periodic renewing of the
above-mentioned debit card, and payment to government service must be free of
charge. The requirement to maintain a minimum amount in bank account and imposition
of monetary penalty if such is not maintained must be removed.
9.
The Government must have a reliable State-owned computer
cloud infrastructure.
10.
The NIC (Network Information Center) must be
upgraded and re-established to comply with the e-Gov initiative. The LK domain
system must be re-structured.
11.
ICTA must be re-incorporated by act of
Parliament and must be charged with more functions, powers, duties, and
responsibilities.
12. The only Operating System (OS) that is installed on the stick computers in the e-government system must be a customized minimalistic Linux-based OS.
Expected Paradigm Shifts
With the introduction of e-Gov in the country, there will be inevitably several major changes in people’s life style as well as the Government’s functioning.
1.
The people and the government both presently depend
very much on usage of hard currencies (bank notes and coins). They must be
forced to utilize banking facilities more. Cost of opening bank accounts and
other bank charges (of normal day to day payments and activities) must be kept
at a minimum, if not zero to incentivize people to get attracted to banking
system, while usage of traditional money as notes and coins must be kind of
“penalized”.
2.
Each and every spending, remitting, and
receiving of money by and to State entities shall be done through bank accounts
only. The Government Auditor (National Audit Commission) shall be given the
full access to these accounts to audit them periodically and ad-hoc.
3. The people will have the opportunity to get the most of the government services done from home through computers and smart phones, and from the Grama Niladari (Divisional Secretary) mostly. They will not have to go to Colombo to get some government services anymore. This will reduce travel cost, time wasting, and unnecessary wasting of resources.
Implementation
Smart Phones
1.
People must have and use smart phones or
computers. For those who cannot afford high-end smart devices, the government
should introduce and subsidize cheap smart devices.
2.
All the mobile phones must be registered in a
central EMEI database maintained by the TRC, and unregistered phones should be
rejected from access to cellular networks.
3.
The government must publish a national standard
specification for any mobile phone, and must ban import and use of all those
phones which do not conform to such specification. Among the requirements in
the specification must be the maximum RF radiation level, minimum standby
battery ON time, GPS + Galileo availability, 4G availability, and SMS
availability.
Broadband Internet Access
4.
The government must ensure that availability of
mobile and telecommunication services be maintained at more than 99.9% despite
power cuts, and natural disasters.
5.
The government must ensure that mobile operators
and fixed line operators keep the Internet broadband bandwidth above a
guaranteed stipulated bandwidth rate (say 1Mbps) for each individual at the
worst case scenario based on historical data, and to keep reviewing the rate on
a quarterly basis.
Telephone Service
6.
All the mobile operators must implement SMS and
4G facilities in every tower/base station.
7.
All the Internet Service Providers (ISP) and
Telephone Service Providers (TSP) in the country should form a mutualized
symposium under the guidance of the TRC to implement one big comprehensive
high-rate fiber network throughout the country to be shared by all ISP’s and
TSP’s. The same symposium must establish a network of high-rate microwave links
throughout the country as well.
8.
The TRC must specify minimum Quality of Service
(QoS) parameters for all telephone services.
9.
Number portability must be implemented.
10.
The number of SIM’s must be limited to a maximum
of three to a single person. All the SIM’s must be registered to live persons
or legal bodies only. Connections registered in dead persons or dissolved legal
bodies must be disconnected, and before such disconnection a notice of such
disconnection must be sent to the registered address two months before.
11.
The number of mobile phone operators must be
brought down to three (by forcing them to merge together).
12.
Several payment platforms (EZcash, mCash, etc)
must be merged into one payment platform to be used by any subscriber of any
mobile network.
13. Both land and mobile telephone operators must provide Basic-rate service free of charge, and such basic-rate service must include:
(a)
incoming calling facility;
(b)
incoming SMS facility;
(c)
outgoing calling facility to three-digit numbers
and in-service numbers (of the operators),
(d)
internet
access to all websites under gov.lk, ac.lk, and sch.lk domains.
(e)
at least a bandwidth of 1Mbps.
14.
The current number plan of telephony must be
revised as follows (with other changes to the communication industry):
a.
The
initial zero must be removed from area codes. Having zero at the beginning of
each number is trivial, useless, and wasteful.
For example, a number in Colombo such as 0112123123 will become
something like 1121231234; a mobile number like 0707500992 will become
7075009921.
b.
However, 00 must be the default IDD gateway
access code.
Further, each operator must be allowed to operate their own IDD gateway and any
subscriber of any network must be allowed to access such gateway by dialing a
relevant IDD gateway code each starting with 0 and another digit. For example,
say Dialog has an IDD Gateway with access code of 01, and I as a subscriber of
Mobitel can use Dialog’s IDD gateway by dialing 01 (instead of 00) and then the
IDD number of the overseas callee. However, if I just dial 00 I as a Mobitel
subscriber will automatically be dialing the Mobitel’s IDD gateway; if I were a
Dialog subscriber, I would be automatically be dialing the Dialog’s IDD
gateway. Up to ten IDD gateways can be accommodated.
c.
Numbers starting with 11 must be all three-digit
telephone numbers with national importance and must be reserved for following
national services only.
National Emergency number (112) which handles or co-ordinates fire brigades, ambulance
service, natural disasters, poison incidents;
Government Information Portal number (111) which handles information requests
by the People on government information;
Sri Lanka Police Operation Center number (113) which handles incidents under
police matters like burglary, crimes, drugs, bomb disposal, terrorist
activities;
National Language Office number (114) which handles real-time language
translation in government service to effectively implement the language right
of the People;
Train Schedules of Sri Lanka Railway (115) for inquiry about train time tables,
which should be the main mode of transport in Sri Lanka;
Anti-Corruption Commission Complain number (116) to lodge tip-offs on corruption
or bribery;
National Agriculture Help Desk (117) to respond to any inquiry on agriculture;
and so on. Calls taken to these numbers must be toll-free and must be recorded
(recording must be stored for not more than three months).
d.
Numbers starting with 10 must be all three-digit
telephone numbers assigned to each telephone operator for their own use like
their call center number. Calls taken to these numbers from within the network must
be toll-free. For example 101 for call center of Mobitel, 107 for call center
of Dialog, 102 for call center of SLT, etc.
Number 109 will be a special number because all telephone operators must have
that telephone number for common sharing purposes. Therefore, if a Mobitel
subscriber sends a message to 109 it will go to Mobitel, and if a Dialog
subscriber sends a message to 109, it will go to Dialog. Such number may be rented
out, for example, to be used by a TV station for reality tv programs (one
common number across all telephone operators).
e.
Numbers starting with 12, 13, 14, and 15 must be
all four-digit telephone numbers which can be commercially obtained by
businesses in the country (like banks, media institutions).
f.
Numbers starting with 16 and 17 must be all
five-digit telephone numbers which can be commercially obtained by businesses
in the country.
g.
Numbers starting with 18, and 19 must be all
six-digit telephone numbers which are all dedicated only for government
institutions. Calls taken to these numbers must be toll-free. All the State
institutions (excluding State-owned commercial institutions like CEB, SLT) must
obtain and use telephone numbers in this range.
h.
Numbers starting with 7 must be reserved for
mobile networks. For example, 71 for Mobitel, 77 for Dialog.
i.
Numbers starting with 8 must be reserved for
nationwide numbers which are also SIP-compliant. SIP numbers may be longer than
10 digits.
j.
Numbers starting with 800 must be toll-free
(cost born by the callee).
k.
All the numbers starting with 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9 must be 10 digit long.
15.
Both the mobile and fixed line telephone
networks must be converted to be digital and packet-switched.
16.
There must be a central database of
telemarketing, and such telephone directory must be maintained by the TRC to
which any phone service subscriber can opt in to block calls from them.
Government Web Domain and Sites
17.
All the government websites must be hosted under
the .gov.lk domain only. Every school should be offered a website under the
domain of sch.lk, and every higher educational institute (including
universities) and research institutes must be offered a website under the
domain of ac.lk. Access to these domains shall be free of charge on any
internet connection in the country.
In fact, the domain names of government websites is extremely important because
almost all functioning of e-Governments are carried out through such websites.
Therefore, the security of the websites from all sorts of hacking and
malpractices must be ensured by the ICTA and the NIC conforming to
international standards and specifications.
All the government websites must share the same style sheet. Contents must be
proof-read to remove grammatical and style mistakes (sadly, most of today’s
government websites are written in very incorrect grammatical and structural
sentences). The ICTA must have a sufficient staff with experts in the three
national languages under a Director to make sure content of government websites
are free of such mistakes.
18.
There shall be appointed by Prime Minister, a
director to the NIC, who must be responsible of the administration of the
gov.lk subdomain only.
19.
There shall be appointed a Deputy Director by
Prime Minister to the NIC who must be responsible of the administration of the
sch.lk and ac.lk subdomains only.
20.
Examples of State websites are as follows
(based on the proposed Constitution)
www.gov.lk – main Government web portal with
all the links to all State websites organized under categories.
www.ceylon.lk – redirects to www.gov.lk
www.president.gov.lk – website of
President of the Republic
www.sa.gov.lk – website of State Assembly
www.parliament.gov.lk – website of
Parliament
www.pm.gov.lk – website of Prime Minister of
the Republic
www.vp.gov.lk – website of Vise President
www.constitution.gov.lk – website
of all details of the Constitution of the Republic
www.cc.gov.lk – website of Constitutional
Council
www.psc.gov.lk – website of Public Service
Commission
www.ec.gov.lk – website of Elections
Commission
www.jsc.gov.lk – website of Judicial
Service Commission
www.nac.gov.lk – website of National Audit
Commission
www.fc.gov.lk – website of Finance
Commission
www.npc.gov.lk – website of National Police
Commission
www.acc.gov.lk – website of Anti-Corruption
Commission
www.nprc.gov.lk – website of National
Procurement Commission
www.atc.gov.lk – website of Attorney
Commission
www.hrcsl.gov.lk – website of Human
Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
www.dc.gov.lk – website of Delimitation
Commission
www.imc.gov.lk – website of Information and
Mass Communication Commission
www.mha.gov.lk – website of Ministry of
Home Affairs
www.mof.gov.lk – website of Ministry of
Finance and Planning
www.mod.gov.lk – website of Ministry of
Defense
www.mfa.gov.lk – website of Ministry of
Foreign Affairs
www.moa.gov.lk – website of Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation, Fisheries, and Animal
Husbandry
www.mot.gov.lk – website of Ministry of Transport and Roads
www.moi.gov.lk – website of Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing, and Water
Supply
www.moe.gov.lk – website of Ministry of Education, Information, Research
and Development
www.moj.gov.lk – website of Ministry of Justice, Parliamentary and State
Assembly Affairs
www.mop.gov.lk – website of Ministry of Power and Energy
www.moc.gov.lk – website of Ministry of Commerce, Industries, and Public
Enterprises
www.moh.gov.lk – website of Ministry of Health, Nutrition, and Sports
www.mlg.gov.lk – website of Ministry of Local Government
www.mse.gov.lk – website of Ministry of Sustainable Development and
Environment
www.gp.gov.lk – website of Green Province
www.wp.gov.lk – web portal of Western
Province
www.sp.gov.lk – web portal of Southern
Province
www.ep.gov.lk – web portal of Eastern
province
www.np.gov.lk – web portal of Northern
Province
www.cp.gov.lk – web portal of Central
Province
www.cm.wp.gov.lk – website of Chief
Minister of Western Province;
and host the websites of chief ministers of each province in the same pattern
(www.cm.XX.gov.lk);
five such websites
www.pc.wp.gov.lk – website of Provincial
Council of Western Province;
and host the websites of Provincial Councils of each province in the same
pattern (www.pc.XX.gov.lk);
five such websites
www.gov.wp.gov.lk – website of Governor
of Western Province;
and host the websites of Governors of each province in the same pattern
(www.gov.XX.gov.lk);
five such websites
www.sjlc.gov.lk – website of the Sri
Jayawardenapura Capital Local Council (special)
www.gm.wp.gov.lk – website of Gampaha
Local Council in the Western Province;
and host the websites of each Local Council in a province in this same pattern
(www.XX.YY.gov.lk);
79 such websites (each Locality must have unique two letter codes)
www.sc.gov.lk – website of Supreme Court
www.ac.gov.lk – website of Court of Appeal
www.hc.gov.lk – website of the Special High
Court
www.hcwp.gov.lk – website of High Court of the Western
Province;
and host the websites of High Court of each province in the same pattern
(www.hcXX.gov.lk);
5 such websites
www.pcwp.gov.lk – website of Provincial
Court of the Western Province;
and host the websites of Provincial Court of each province in the same manner
(www.pcXX.gov.lk);
5 such websites
www.mcgm.gov.lk – website of Magistrate
Court of Gampaha Locality;
and host the websites of Magistrate Court of each Locality in the same pattern
(www.mcXX.gov.lk);
80 such websites
www.pcgm.gov.lk – website of Primary Court
of Gampaha Locality;
and host the websites of Primary Court of each Locality in the same pattern
(www.pcXX.gov.lk);
80 such websites
www.police.gov.lk , www.army.gov.lk , www.navy.gov.lk , www.airforce.gov.lk , www.trc.gov.lk , www.cbsl.gov.lk (central bank) , www.neroc.gov.lk (national emergency
response operating center) , www.nlo.gov.lk
(national language office) , www.doe.gov.lk
(department of examination) , www.icta.gov.lk
, www.ndsdb.gov.lk (national water supply
and drainage board) , www.post.gov.lk , www.rda.gov.lk , www.railway.gov.lk , www.caa.gov.lk (consumer affairs authority), www.ports.gov.lk (ports authority), www.ceb.gov.lk , and so on…
Enforcement of Right to Information and Language Right
21.
The ICTA, Information Officer and Designated
Officer in each State entity must be held responsible to update government
websites daily. Such websites must include details such as the political and
administrative officers of such entity; how such entity is mandated by relevant
provisions of the Constitution or other laws; the organization hierarchy chart
(if relevant); address and contact details location details with (google) map; its
functions, duties, powers, and responsibilities; expense and income (if
relevant) of last five years with detailed figures and graphical charts; and so
on.
Every government body must have a clear statement of its duties and functions, their long term plans, short term plans, its projects and activities, and estimates and spending of public money. All these details must be readily published on its official website.
22.
Each government website described above shall
have provided on such website for citizens to request information under the
Right to Information (RTI) with online payment facility to pay fees (if any)
for such RTI requests.
23.
All the government websites shall have made
available the same details in the three official languages.
Government Payment System
24.
All online payments through government websites
must be transacted or handled through one payment processor implemented by
Lanka Clear (or Bank of Ceylon).
Digital (Root) Server Certificate Server
25.
The government must establish by law its own
digital certificate server (a corporate body) well-protected according to the
international security and operational standards to issue digital (SSL)
certificates to all government websites and services. Root Certificate(s) of
such Server must be integrated in all computers in the government service, and
such Certificates must be publicly available to be installed by the People on
their personal computers at their discretion.
Lean Computer and LKOS Operating System
26.
Each government worker (public officer) from the
Grama Niladari to the Ministry secretary must be given a computer. This
computer is not the usual type that we see as desktop or laptop in day to day
life. This computer must be just a stick PC plus a 15 inch LED monitor with a
keyboard and a mouse. This whole setup can be customized to fit in one package
- nice and clean (hereinafter let’s call this computer set-up as “lean
computer”). We can get following advantages and features with this lean
computer.
a.
The cost of the computer system can be at least
10 times cheaper than a normal computer.
b.
The performance is not substandard because there
are very cheap but very powerful stick PC’s with dual cores or even quad cores.
2GB RAM is enough. Because only one software suite and a lean OS tailored for
providing government service is run, the computer can run even faster and
efficiently.
c.
The computer system takes only a smaller space
on the desk. It can save a lot of office space.
d.
A normal computer system may use around 450
Watts of electricity power, but the proposed system would only consume less
than 40 Watts. Thus it would be at least 10 times lower in power consumption.
It can save a lot of electricity bill.
e.
Apart from the direct saving of electricity as
mentioned above, it can further save energy because these low-energy computers
dissipate only a little heat to the surrounding. Therefore, it will decrease
the burden on fans and AC’s, and in turn it will decrease electricity
consumption.
f.
We can employ smaller UPS for each computer to
provide for an uninterrupted service in case of power failures.
g.
Not only the cost of acquisition and ownership
of the whole e-Gov system is lower, maintenance cost and time is much less.
27.
The government must establish by law a corporate
body to oversee the proper implementation and maintenance of e-Gov service. The
Current ICTA, for this purpose, must be re-established as a body corporate
established by an Act of Parliament (not as a company).
This body must develop a Linux-based brand new operating system to be installed
on all the computer systems in the government departments and all other
government institutions. Let’s call this operating system “LKOS”.
This LKOS must be free from unnecessary coding used for gaming, creative works,
productive works, and such. It must be bare-minimum to support the software
suite developed for government services.
Hereby, the government on one hand can save a lot of money spent on commercial
operating systems, and on the other, can design a highly secured, highly
efficient, robust, lean, and free operating system.
Government Workflow Re-engineering
28. Each and every government institution provides for different services and they have different powers, duties, responsibilities, and functions.
Workflow of each such process may be different but has to follow a certain chain of verification, validation, and approval from the moment a service request from a person was received by the front-end office (counter) until such service is completely disposed of in the end, as per the rules and regulations.
First we have to identify and document with definiteness and meticulous care, all the steps or points of checks/authority of such workflow. In this finding, we must document the following matters:
(a)
The number of steps or points of
checks/authority of a particular workflow;
(b)
Designation of the public officer in charge or
at service of each of such steps or points of checks/authority;
(c)
Definite powers, duties, functions, and
responsibilities of each of such class of public officer;
(d)
Based on the historical data, determine the time
each such officer normally spends to carry out the particular task in the
current traditional service;
(e)
Determine how that particular task must be
transformed if it is to be done digitally, and employ digital substitutes for
manual steps;
(f)
Determine the normal duration of each such point
of check/authority in the digital service;
(g)
Determine how long it will take to completely
process one instance of whole workflow in the digital (electronic) service;
(h)
Determine exceptional processes, if any, at each
such point of check/authority and the alternative steps/paths thereof, and
determine time durations of each of such alternative steps/paths.
29. Use digital certificates and fool-proof electronic time stamping at each point of check/authority.
30.
Protect logins of each public officer in the
e-Gov system with strong passwords (strength of password strictly enforced),
and two factor verification via SMS; and use USB security sentinels/dongles if
authority of such person is more significant or serious.
Illegally using another officer’s login in the e-Gov system must be legally
criminalized with suitable punishments.
Performance statistics of each public officer regardless of the rank of such officer must be measured, evaluated, and stored.
Public Digital Interface
31. Currently a lot of different types of forms and formats are being used in the traditional government service. These documents (forms) have several ineffective features, and some of such deficiencies are as follows.
(a)
Have redundant fields; for example, asking for both
the Age and Date of Birth;
(b)
Have fields asking for unnecessary details; for
example, asking for Religion;
(c) Have fields asking for too deep a certain unnecessary detail; for example, asking for Grama Niladari Division number, Electoral Division, etc in addition to the Address.
However, by carefully planning by a group of experts, we can and must design a set of electronic forms and documents with a uniform format.
Due to the inherent capabilities of
electronic systems (and electronic database systems), we can integrate and
exploit such nice, effective, and efficient features in designing new
electronic versions of forms.
We can do away with such fields like name, date of birth, address, gender,
nationality, religion (anyway this field must be compulsorily deprecated), and
marital status. Just entering your National ID number is enough because all
such other details of such person can be easily retrieved or referred to
electronically with government databases which hold such details of persons.
Thus, format of an electronic form
will be very minimalistic and simple. Filling in such form will be easier and
simpler. Insertion anomalies (for example, misspelling) will be minimized.
Processing time will be smaller because automatic data retrieval or validation
can be programmed to occur.
For all this to happen, a new system of personal ID system must be implemented,
and such is discussed later in this document.
Government Virtual Network and Cloud
32.
The government must make a highly secured
virtual computer network to interconnect all the computers in the e-Gov system.
This system must interconnect with the less secured Internet in a selected
manner with sufficient military-grade technology so as not to weaken the highly
secured virtual network which hosts the whole e-Government service.
New National Personal Identity Card
33.
When a person is born as a Sri Lankan (inside
the country or outside), that baby must be issued 3 originals of nicely printed
birth certificate bearing a unique personal identification number (which also
acts as the birth certificate id) free of charge.
This number must be carried forward in subsequent documents like national id
card. The format of this personal id number must be:
AAAABBBCCCCD
Where,
AAAA – the year the child is born
BBB – for male: the number of days from the
beginning of the born year to the date of birth considering January 01 as 001;
for female: add 500 to the
above number;
CCCC – a random number which is unique
during a particular day;
D – a good check digit (calculated based on
AAAABBBCCCC value).
The birth certificate must be a streamlined simple format than the current one
with unnecessary fields.
People must be encouraged to have only one first name and one family (last)
name or surname. Therefore, in the birth certificate there must be two fields –
one to write the full family name, and one to write just one word first name. All
official documents or references must include only the first name and last
name.
There should be another field to write other names which are not considered to
be part of the official personal name, but it’s there merely for mental
satisfaction for those who really wanted to have several names for the baby.
The first and last names must be entered first in English, and second in either
Sinhala (for Sinhalese) or Tamil (for Tamil speaking community). This English
name shall be the English spelling for that particular name for the rest of the
life.
34.
When the child has grown up and is going to face
GCE Ordinary Level examination, he must apply for the National ID card for the
first time in life. The National ID must be a credit card size (driver’s license
sized) document. The first NIC must be
issued free of charge.
The birth certificate id becomes the NIC number.
The NIC must include.
(a)
NIC Number;
(b)
First and Last names;
(c)
Date of Birth;
(d)
Expiry Date;
(e)
A photo conforming to a strict specification;
(f)
Residential Address;
(g)
Blood Group;
(h)
Gender (one of Male or Female);
(i)
Marital Status (one of Single, Divorced,
Married, and Re-married);
(j)
Reference to a permanent disability (such as
blind, deaf, amputated, OCD, etc);
(k)
If it also operates as a driver’s license, the
classes of permitted vehicles.
35.
This initial NIC must expire at the age of 24
years. The NIC must be renewed periodically at the age of 35 and at the age of
60.
36.
Whenever you change your place of residence, a
new NIC must be obtained with the updated address of residence.
You may update your residential address by going to the Grama Niladari of your
new residential area and filling in the relevant form. You must be present in
person before the Grama Niladari, and he must input and process it
electronically with his computer.
Hereby, the government always has your correct residential address in the
government computer system.
37.
No
biometric information like retina scanning, finger printing, personal DNA
sequence, etc shall be taken and kept to provide for normal government
services. However, for treatments of medical conditions, to identify criminal,
etc, the government may take biometric information under the provisions of
strict laws regarding protection of the privacy of the people.
38.
When you get a new driving license, instead of
issuing a separate license (plastic card), the classes of vehicles permitted
and other details must be printed on the NIC itself (ie, a new NIC must be
issued). It’s useless to carry several cards.
39.
Whenever a person gets married or divorced or
remarried, the current NIC must be renewed to reflect his new marital status.
40.
The NIC must be in both English and one’s mother
tongue (Sinhala or Tamil as the case might be). Only the first name and last
name are in the NIC without “other names” as mentioned above.
41. When designing electronic forms, the form must be designed such that you only have to enter the NIC number, and then your first name, the last name, the latest address, date of birth, gender, marital status must be automatically filled in (grayed out). Thus, the form becomes simpler, less error-prone, and pleasant to the people.
Bank Culture
42. Every citizen must be compelled to open one or several bank accounts. A new bank account must be mandatorily opened for a person when he applies for the first NIC, if the child has not already obtained a bank account.
Banks must open all savings bank accounts of persons under the age of 18 free
of any charge.
43.
LankaClear or another state body must introduce
a unified debit/bank card to be issued by all the banks operating in Sri Lanka
to its bank customers instead of Visa, MasterCard, or such international
brands. This card must be similar to a Visa/Master card in all respects (with a
16 digit card number, expiration date, CVV), but it’s a local card which is
accepted in any payment within Sri Lanka whether it’s swiping, or online
payment.
The cost of transactions with this card must be either zero or less than 0.1%
of the transaction amount. There must be no renewal charge on such card.
This card must be NFC-enabled.
In fact, bank may issue Visa, Master or
such international brands in addition to the local debit card as described
above.
44.
Banks must allow its customers to be issued
virtual top-up bank cards free of charge (say, up to a maximum three such
virtual cards at a given time). The bank customer (ie, the citizen) can top it
up with his online banking facility when the money gets depleted due to
payments with it. Thus, the customer can have further safety with payment with the
bank accounts.
45.
All kinds of bank card transactions must be
protected with OTP mechanism using SMS. For each transaction done through bank
account/card, an SMS must be sent with the details of the transaction free of
charge as well.
46.
Because daily money movement is supposed to be
done through the bank accounts, the frequency of interest calculation of the
accounts must be daily (say, interest calculated on the money remaining at
6.30pm every day).
47.
All the salary/wage payments (monthly, weekly,
daily) by both private and government bodies must be remitted to the bank
accounts only.
48.
All the payments or money transfers happening
between businesses for whatever purpose must happen through debits and credits
of bank accounts. The business or institution could be a sole enterprise,
partnership, company, association, society, charity or a government body.
49.
All money transfers in cases of purchase of
vehicles, lands must be done through bank accounts (no cash).
50.
Every payment to a government service in local,
provincial and national level should be encouraged to be done online and
banking system.
However, cash payments (through a shroff) can still be made, but must be highly
discouraged by imposing a surcharge (like 15% of the payment).
51. Every government body must be audited by the Auditor General (National Audit Commission), and there must be a separate chapter for each government body in the Auditor General’s annual report. The website of each government body must host the chapter of this Report relating to it.
General
52.
Never ask race, religion, or nationality in
government forms (except for some occasions where such details are really
needed to know). All the citizens shall be considered Sri Lankan. In case the
government has to know the nationality of foreigners, such field may be
included in such forms and documentation.
53. Each
and every document (form, statement, receipt, circular, etc) submitted by or
presented to a person, to and from any government body must have a unique and
uniform reference (serial number). This unique reference number must encode the
date and time (accuracy within a whole second) of the submission thereof, the
nature of the document, the government body it is related to, and sequential
serial number incrementing one by one. It must be 64 bit long.
Let us call this unique serial number “Universal Document ID (UDID)”. This UDID
can uniquely identify any document within an epoch (around 136 years).
The format of a typical UDID is as follows:
<epoch><level><entityType><applicability><docNumber><docNumber><sequentialNumber><checkDigit>
Where
<epoch> - a 32 bit long number denoting the number of seconds of time
since 2000-01-01 12:00AM. This number offers a unique number for each second
for around 136 years. Thus it is unique until the year 2136;
<level> - basically a 2 digit field
00 – central/national
level
01 – central/national
level
10 xxx – provincial
level (here, it absorbs three bits from the next entityType field)
Eg: 10000 – Western Province
10001 – Southern Province
10010 – Eastern
Province
10011 – Northern
Province
10100 – Central
Province
10101 – Green
Province
10110 – Sri
Jayawardenapura Capital
11 xxxxxxx – Locality
level (it absorbs seven bits from the next entityType field)
Eg: 110000000 – Gampaha Locality
110000001 – Kandy
Locality
etc
<entityType> - basically a 10 bit long Document Type field denoting the
organization/body that issues or accepts a document. In the national level,
this allows for up to 2048 entities; and in provincial level, up to 128
entities; and in locality level, up to 32 entities.
<applicability> - 1 bit long field to
denote whether such documents are for internal or external purposes.
0 – internal
circulation only
1 – external
(public) circulation only
<docType> - 3 bit long Document Type field denoting the nature of the document.
000 – Form (to be submitted to the entity)
001 – Acknowledgement (to be issued by the entity in response)
010 – Receipt (to be issued by the entity)
011 – Notification (to be
issued by the entity)
100 – Order or
Recommendation
Etc
<docNumber> - a 4 bit Document Number field denoting the document id/number (for example, a certain organization may have several forms for several tasks). This allows for up to 16 document types under a certain Document Type.
<sequentialNumber> - a 7 digit sequential number to make the whole serial number unique.
<checkDigit> - a 5 bit check digit number.
This 64 bit serial number (UDID) must be encoded with the following encoding scheme (hereinafter, this encoding scheme will be called as “TC32 Encoding”).
The encoding alphabet shall include the
following 32 different alphanumeric entities. Here, each entity is shown with
its binary and decimal equivalent forms. Upper case or lower case of English
letters does not matter.
|
TC32 entity |
Bit form |
Decimal form |
TC32 entity |
Bit form |
Decimal form |
|
0 |
00000 |
0 |
H |
10000 |
16 |
|
1 |
00001 |
1 |
J |
10001 |
17 |
|
2 |
00010 |
2 |
K |
10010 |
18 |
|
3 |
00011 |
3 |
L |
10011 |
19 |
|
4 |
00100 |
4 |
M |
10100 |
20 |
|
5 |
00101 |
5 |
N |
10101 |
21 |
|
6 |
00110 |
6 |
P |
10110 |
22 |
|
7 |
00111 |
7 |
Q |
10111 |
23 |
|
8 |
01000 |
8 |
R |
11000 |
24 |
|
9 |
01001 |
9 |
S |
11001 |
25 |
|
A |
01010 |
10 |
T |
11010 |
26 |
|
B |
01011 |
11 |
U |
11011 |
27 |
|
C |
01100 |
12 |
V |
11100 |
28 |
|
E |
01101 |
13 |
W |
11101 |
29 |
|
F |
01110 |
14 |
X |
11110 |
30 |
|
G |
01111 |
15 |
Y |
11111 |
31 |
For example, take the following reference number (UDID).
1110100010100010100000101111111101001001000010100110000000101010
Using the above TC32 encoding, first append one 0 to the above bit stream to make it 65 bit long. Then, arrange it in 5 bit groups. Then, substitute/map each group with a suitable TC32 entity.
11101 00010 10001 01000 00101 11111 11010 01001 00001 01001 10000 00010 10100
W 2 J 8 5 Y T 9 1 9 H 2 M
Thus, the short TC32-encoded serial number will be W2J85YT919H2M.
This UDID must be stamped at the very
moment of submission or release.
This way of unique reference can stop favoritism by directing the system to
process the document serially. You can check whether another document submitted
later than yours is going to be processed before yours.
www.gov.lk website must include an online
decoder to decode a UDID and presents you all the pieces of information in it.
54.
Just after successful completion of the document
process workflow, an SMS must be sent to the relevant person who submitted it.
If the document needs further clarifications from the relevant person, again
this fact must be notified to him immediately by SMS and email.
55. For any document processed through e-Gov service there shall create a particular database record in its central storage facility. Such record must include the following fields.
(a)
Universal Document ID;
(b)
The National ID number of the citizen to whom
such document is related as either a submitter or a receiver. If the person is
a foreigner, then use the passport number of that foreign person in lieu of the
National ID number;
(c)
The National ID number of the public officer
such document was handled by in the first instance;
(d)
The National ID number of the public officer who
was the ultimate/final authority of such document;
(e)
If such document refers to or relates to some
other document (like a deed of a property, a driver’s license, a passport,
etc), the ID number and supplementary data of such other document;
(f)
Any specific or additional remarks.
56.
This record must be printed on paper in a
continuous feed and a daily roll of such records must be sheared and stored
away in a safe filing storage (as per some guidelines and specification) in the
central storage facility itself.
57.
If there are other written form material (eg:
deeds, licenses, etc) along with the document submitted or issued, such
material must be digitally scanned and saved in a different database relationally
linked with the above records. This database also must be stored in the central
storage facility.
58.
All the digital records/documents/scanned
materials in the central storage facility must be safely stored on a
distributed powerful server farm with distributed storage and with redundancy, for
at least three years. These records must be live and accessible to e-Gov
service on read-only access basis, and access to such records must be
authorized.
59.
Any correction or alteration to a document must
be carried out as a new process and a separate record must be created without
deleting or modifying the old record.
60.
In addition to storage of such documents with
live access to it, all those digital records and scanned material must be
backed up. One highly secured and advanced central backup facility must be set
up to store all the documents processed in the e-Gov system for one epoch (say
136 years).
These digital records and material must be backed up on DVD discs (not in
semiconductor memory). Semiconductor memory may be easily destroyed by
electrical phenomena.
The access to these backed-up records (after they are not live in the e-Gov System) must be provided under the permission of a competent court only.
Each sector (say, defense, agriculture, finance, education, etc) must have its
own backup facility as the second tier where records/documents must be stored
in semiconductor memory devices with redundancy to withstand random
malfunctions of the devices with instant recovery of data on such events. These
records also must be stored for the same period as above. These records must be
accessible to the related government organizations on lawful purposes.
Each government body must keep records it processes for some short period of
time (say, 5 years).
61.
Each signatory officer (final authority)
processing the documents must be issued digital certificates in a hardware
sentinel/dongle which must be also protected by a password known and managed by
him only.
For more serious handling of documents, in addition to the sentinel, an OTP
must be sent to his mobile phone to proceed with the processing.
Every time he digitally signs an electronic document, an email and an SMS must
be forwarded to him.
62. Each time a record is accessed (for view), such attempt must be recorded in a different immutable database with the following fields. This is for prevention of malpractices and corruption. This database also must be maintained in the central storage facility.
(a)
Universal Document ID of the record;
(b)
The date and time of access;
(c)
The National ID number of the public officer who
accessed the record;
(d) The Node address (IP address) of the computer used.
A few scenarios
1. Registering a birth
The child may be born in a hospital or at home or somewhere else for that
matter. The medical officer just enters mother’s NIC number, and the system
generates the official serial number (UDID) for that birth. That’s it.
This UDID is still provisional in that the birth id (later to become the NIC
number) has not been officially generated yet, and has to be finalized within 2
weeks by giving further details as father’s NIC number, first name and
family/last name of the child, (unofficial) other names of the child, if any.
No more details are required. No need to include the nationality, religion,
grandparent’s details, the professions of the parents in the certificate.
Either the mother or the father has to go in person with the provisional UDID to
give the above details to the Birth Registration office of any government
hospital.
No fee must be charged.
The name must be entered in either Sinhala or Tamil along with the correct
English transliteration.
By NIC numbers of the father and the mother, the relevant data such as names of
father and mother and their birth days, etc will be automatically filled in for
the child’s birth certificate.
The relevant government body must issue three originals of the computer-printed
birth certificate on high quality A-4 paper.
At the end, the birth id is generated and stored along with other details in
the database of Registration of Births.
The blood group of the child must be mentioned on the birth certificate too.
2.
First Registration of the National Identity Card
A citizen must obtain the NIC for the first
time just before sitting for the GCE O/L.
This process must be handled through schools.
The citizen must go to an approved photographer to take a picture which is
submitted online to a database kept in the government body. The photographer
then provides for a serial number to that picture in the database to be used
when filling in the application.
The citizen or most probably the
guarding/mother/father of the child has to fill in the relevant document
online. Enter the unique id number in the birth certificate, the current
residential address, and the photo’s serial number only. No more details
needed.
Then you pay the fee online with direct debit banking facility or bank card. At
the end of the online process, you will get a receipt therefor with a UDID.
The workflow begins from the online
filling. Then it is automatically queued and a notification will be sent to the
principal of the school. The system finds the correct school and its principal
by referring to another database which has stored the child’s school details. The
principal of the school checks it by logging into his official web portal, and
approves it within 24 hours.
Then, it is removed from the school queue and is forwarded to and queued in the
Grama Niladari of the area the child lives. Again the system finds the correct
Grama Niladari from the address of the Guardian/mother/father. The GN must
check if the details of the parents and address are correct, and forwards
electronically the application to the Registrar of Persons (or government body
issuing NIC) within 24 hours.
The government body must print it within 48 hours and send it to the person’s school
by registered post.
There will not be any one-day service hereafter. The NIC shall be issued within
5 working days. You will be notified via SMS of submission of the NIC. Another
SMS notification will be sent telling you to collect it.
The NIC must be printed on it with the color photo, the first and last names,
address, blood group, birth date, id number, issue date and expiry date. All
these fields/data must be in both English and one local language (Sinhala or
Tamil).
No NFC or chip or magnetic strip must be present.
3.
Change of Residential Address
After you shift your residence, you must go
to the GN of the new residence. The GN will enter your NIC number into a
relevant online form in his computer and register your residential address and
contact number. Then he will also enter NIC numbers of the other family members
living at such residence. You will get an acknowledgement with a GUID by the GN
and a notification will be sent via SMS.
4.
Subsequent renewal of NIC
The form is filled in online from home. You
have to get a new photograph as mentioned above. Then enter the photo’s
reference id, and your NIC number, and pay electronically as mentioned above.
That’s it. You will get a UDID, and an SMS will be sent to you too.
The Local Secretary (AGA office) will get your NIC within 5 working days. Another
SMS will be sent to you advising you to collect it. You must go in person to
such office and surrender your current NIC to get the renewed one.
If you want to change the residential address in the renewed NIC, just before
you fill in the NIC renewal online form, you must first change the Residential
Address following the procedure described above.
5. Obtaining a Driver’s License
Get a training from a registered Driving
School. Then the Chief Officer of the Driving School enters your NIC number and
your classes of vehicle training in his computer system. You will get a reference number therefor.
Then, you must get a photograph as you did for obtaining the NIC.
Then, you must get a medical report, and the doctor will input your NIC number
and medical details into his system. You will get a reference number therefor.
Eventually you will fill the online form by entering your NIC number, the photograph reference, the driving school’s reference, and the medical reference. You will then pay the fee online too. You will get a UDID and an SMS will be sent to you about the acceptance of your application.
The Local Secretary (AGA Office) will get your new NIC with the driving details included in it. You will get an SMS advising you to collect it. You have to go in person there to collect it and surrender your old NIC to them.
6. Obtaining a Passport
Get a photograph as usual. Fill in the
online form by entering your NIC number and photograph reference. Then pay
online. You will be issued a UDID. An SMS will be sent to you too. The Local
Secretary (AGA Office) will get your Passport. Another SMS will be sent
advising you to collect it. You have to go in person there to collect it. They
will check your NIC physically too.
No more one-day service.
7. Obtaining a school or other examination certificate (copy)
In the online form, enter you NIC number,
select the examination type, and enter the year, and the index number. Then pay
online. That’s it. You will be issued a UDID and an SMS will be sent to you.
Another SMS will be sent to you once they dispatch your certificate via post. You
will get your certificate to your residential address.
Submitted by:
Sumith Wanni Arachchige
+94 (0)70 7500992
+1 (213) 537 8643
+44 20 3468 1935