Two companies with infamous histories – Metropolitan and Epic Lanka Technologies, are reportedly trying to win the Tender to digitalize the Ministry of Justice.
The two companies have jointly bid for the Tender, which closed on the 22nd.
What is this Tender?
The Tender has been called for the protection of highly sensitive data, the court management system, the court filing system and court recording system. This includes all details will be in the system including the voice records/ video records of all cases heard in the court. Even the evidence will be updated in the system.
Accordingly, the company who gets the Tender is responsible for all these and is even capable of updating evidence of the cases in the system.
A deliberate actEpic Lanka Technologies faces charges of deleting data from the National Drug Regulatory Authority (NMRA) database. The case was taken up before the Colombo Chief Magistrate Buddhika C. Ragala yesterday (02) and the assistant software engineer of the company was remanded till Nov. 16th.
The forensic audit carried out by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) with the assistance of three university professors in computer science have revealed that deleting of over 11,000 data in the NMRA database, was not an accident but a deliberate act.
It has also been revealed that the suspected Assistant Software Engineer had spent over 05 hours from 3.45 am – 10.25 am on July 09, 2021, deleting data from his home.
Tharindra Kalpage, the former CEO of Epic Lanka Technologies, was also arrested over the incident and was later released on bail.
Metropolitan history
Metropolitan too, is a company accused of making huge profits after being awarded the driving license Tender in Sri Lanka, amid a number of irregularities including not handing over databases.
Another singular fact is Mr. Thushara Suraweera, who is said to be a government official who backed Metropolitan in several matters including to secure the driving license Tender, is currently working as an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Justice.
Accordingly, there is a rumor in the field that Metropolitan would be awarded this Tender as well.
Although Metropolitan secured the driving license Tender from 2009 – 2016, they had been permitted to continue until 2019 with no fresh Tenders called, and this has been possible with the backing of officials including Suraweera.
Although Metropolitan had guaranteed that the Driving License printed by them would last for 10 years, they had in fact faded out within just 05 – 06 months with a high tendency to be torn in two. This has led to a string of public complaints to the then Commissioner of Motor Traffic.
Doubts were also aired as to whether data were actually stored in the chip within the license. As per the Tender, equipment to inspect the chip should have been handed over to the Department of Motor Traffic but this had not been done even after the Tender period had expired.
Other bidders
For the Tender at the Ministry of Justice, Tech companies such as Millennium Information Technologies, Abans IT, Just In Time Group, Softlogic, Dialog Axiata and Sri Lanka Telecom had also put forward their bids.
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