විද්‍යුත් රාජ්‍යකරණ යෝජනාවලිය (electronic government)

 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

 

sumith@tekcroach.top

sumithlk@gmail.com 

 

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