Why not increase the TEXT size on firefox and try to read the comment on 30

Donald Gaminitillake
I set the standard

Oyage unicode ochchara honda nam aluthinma patan gaththa wijaya online pattareth wena font ekak use karanne ey? unicode honda nam anith aya pawichchi karanawane. http://www.wijeya.lk/wijeya/

මා කිසිම ආකාරයකින් වූ වාරණයට සහමුලින් ම විරුද්ධ, එය අපේ රටේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙනුත් සුරකින භාෂණයේ හා අදහස් ප්‍රකාශ කිරීමේ අයිතිය ට පටහැනි වන නිසයි.

“දහසක් මත ගැටෙද්දෙන් දහසක් මල් පිපෙද්දෙන්”

ස්තුතියි!
වසන්ත

e-NIC’s another flop, $ 50 Million down the drain

TWO DECADE OLD TECHNOLOGY
LTTE CAN FORGE e-NICS
By Jayantha Sri Nissanka

The Electronic National Identity Cards (e-NIC) project is poised to be another flop as a two decade- old technology is to be used to produce e-NICs.
The e-NICs produced under this technology can be easily forged and the Government will waste five billion rupees (US$ 50 million) on this project, some of the foreign bidders told LAKBIMAnEWS.
The Tender document which was given to bidders last Friday (28/03/08) does not ask bidders to manufacture e-NIC with the latest available technology in the world to avoid forging IDs. Instead page 172 of the Tender document has specified “PDF 417-Two Dimensional Barcode (TDB)” technology .
The Government is planning to issue 12 million e-NICs in seven years.
Industry experts warned that any organisation like the LTTE could easily forge e-NICs as they can obtain all the information of any e-NIC from an Optical reader, which is available in the open market for US $ 1000. When asked what was the safest way of producing e-NICs, they said that the latest technology is the SMART card or the Micro Computer Chip Card or the Integrated Circuit Card (ICC). When asked about the cost difference of the TDB cards and SMART Cards, these sources said “if the TDB card costs one dollar, the SMART Card will cost two dollars. But going with the SMART card is the best and the safest way as SMART Cards have zero possibility as far as forging is concerned.”
Other informed sources alleged that the Tender has been designed to provide the bid to a German Company.
The local partner of the German Company was also involved in preparing the technical specifications of the Tender in 2005. The Deputy Controller of Immigration and Emigration, M.N.Ranasinghe who is one of the members in the e-NIC project, declined to comment.

Why someone should consider Shilpa Sayura to tech Government officers? Government officers are not School Children who are well educated. Why they need to start again. Is this guy really worried about Shilpa Sayura or Himself? I mean sustainability……

ICT project is my gold mine
It is also Alladins Lamp that give me what I want
I will treat whoever giving me what I want

My brother is Mr Ten Percent
I am Mr Hundred Percent
My name is Lokuma Loku mama
Find out me

Contents has to be develop by people with professional qualifications to handle children’s education and the children has to be thought the correct Sinhala Language with accepted Sinhala characters.

Since these two issues are not addressed it has to be corrected or scrap before country fall into another educational turmoil

Donald Gaminitillake
I set the standard

Shilpa Sayura has brought glory to our dear motherland by wining international level awards in India and Malaysia. No other project has brought such honor to Sri Lanka before.

However Shilpa Sayura has been installed only in limited number of Nenasalas. ICTA should take immediate stapes to install that in all Nenasalas and thus help poor students to continue their studies. This should be taken as a key priority of the moment. ICTA should not let Shilpa Sayura to die.

Why ICTA cannot make Shilpa Sayura a part of its e-government program and support it in future? I think if it does it will be good for the country.

I am sad to see after joining ICTA he has compromised that.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

1. A VIP politician is setting an extremely bad precedent. – This is akin to challenge the decision of the umpire in a cricket match.

2. A set of IT professionals are used to do the dirty job. (Not for the first time) In fact some of them have serious clashes of interests, because they are the same people who made the mess in the first place!

3. Nobody makes even a slightest noise about this purely unethical act. Are we so tolerant about these unethical acts?

When it was designed ICTA was given a clout to make things happening faster and to avoid any political interventions interrupting what it was supposed to do.

What nobody had envisaged is what would have happened if a highly corrupted politician is made in charge of ICTA. (I think nobody thought of that possibility then. They might have assumed it would be always under people Milinda Moragoda and Tissa Witharana, though ineffective not super corrupted) But the unexpected had happened. So now the same clout is being used to do the very things, which it was supposed to prevent.

This is the fourth major example.

First is procuring VSAT links for a well known SLFP financial supporter for a cost of Rs. 90 mil.

Second is appointment of a nominal CEO out of the interview process and pay him a hefty ‘compensation’ package though he does no work at all.

Third is to grant a 15 mil US project to a Korean firm that has not even complied with mandatory tender requirements.

What more we can expect?

Where is the transparency the ICTs supposed to bring?

http://www.island.lk/2008/02/18/news1.html

UNDP funded Parliament IT project in fresh controversy
Expert committee rejects AG’s report
by Shamindra Ferdinando

Controversy over the Auditor General’s damming report on UNDP funded IT projects in Parliament has taken a new turn with an IT Expert Panel appointed by the ICTA (Information and Communication Technology Agency) strongly disputing the audit findings.

The ICTA had been the consultants to the project.

The ten-member panel, in its 18-page report has pointed out that there was no basis for AG’s report which faulted both the House administration and UNDP for glaring shortcomings in the multi million USD project launched after the Oslo-brokered CFA came into operation in February 2002.

The panel comprised Dr. Ajith Madurapperuma (Senior Lecturer, University of Moratuwa), Prof. Gihan V. Dias (Senior Lecturer, University of Moratuwa), Dr. Prasad Wimalaratne (Senior Lecturer, University of Colombo) Wasantha Deshapriya (Director, Re-Engineering Government, ICTA) Ms. Thusha Mukunthan (e-Parliament Project, ICTA), Rajiv Ranjan (ICT for Development Advisor, UNDP), Mahesh Perera (Director Information System Management, Parliament, Buddhika Nawagamua (Systems Engineer, Parliament) and K.O.D.D. Fernando (Deputy General Manager-IT, Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau) and Thushara Suraweera (Assistant Secretary, Presidential Secretariat).

The panelists said that the AG’s report based on the audit carried out by Eidikos Lanka (Pvt) Limited lacked clarity, contained inaccuracies and failed to meet its own objectives.

Authoritative sources said that the appointment of the IT Expert Panel was made on a request made by a Parliamentary Select Committee headed by Geethanjana Gunawardene, Deputy Speaker. Sources said the PSC which was tasked with exploring ways and means of maintaining and improving standards of the House scrutinised the AG’s findings.

Sources asserted that there couldn’t be a similar case where the Auditor General’s findings had been dismissed. The sources said that on the basis of the ‘new findings’ the House wouldn’t be required to act on the AG’s report.

The panel has held that the AG’s report failed to identify the progress of the UNDP funded IT projects. It also accused the AG of ‘misrepresenting the situation with inaccurate and misleading comments.’

Expressing its full confidence in the project, the panel, in its report dated December 27, 2007 has recommended the continuation of the project without delay. “We are of the view that the comments and substance of the audit report didn’t warrant or justify any substantial deviation from the strategy or specifications already evolved in this regard,” the panel has said while calling for the setting up of what it called a rightful authority to carry forward the strategy speedily.

Subsequently, the outgoing Secretary General Mrs. Priyanee Wijesekera, who had been the Project Director of the grandiose project, delegated authority to her Deputy Dhammika Dassanayake. Although the Secretary General had been in overall in charge of the project, the second-in-command had been responsible for the implementation, the sources said.

In fact, Mrs. Wijesekera, in response to the ‘Draft Interim Audit Report’ sent to her in last June, fired back a letter to the Auditor General denying her involvement in the project. She emphasised that she wouldn’t take responsibility for the IT budget revision and implementation of the IT component of the UNDP funded project.

Following the rejection of the audit findings, the UNDP had signalled that it would agree to go ahead with the project. Earlier, the agency said that it would pull out of the project. Well informed sources said that subsequent to UNDP warning, the House had sought financial backing from an international lending agency.

The panel has strongly disputed the AG’s decision to employ Eidikos Lanka (Pvt) Limited to carry out the audit , on which his final report dated November 7, 2007 was based. The panelists said, “Firstly we bring it to the notice of the committee [PSC] that Eidikos Lanka (Pvt) limited which was chosen to do the audit by the AG Department consisted of a set of former employees of Ernest and Young, who were the consultants responsible for the system study, prepared the ICT Strategic Plan and developed the bid documents for Parliament.” In an unprecedented attack on the AG, the panel said that they shouldn’t have been allowed to audit the project under any circumstances. “It is very unfortunate that AG has appointed and delegated the IT audit to a group of individuals who may not be neutral. This is a conflict of interest.”

The panel also accused the AG of turning a blind eye to clarifications provided by Parliament, ICTA and UNDP to the ‘Draft Interim Audit Report’ sent to Parliament in the second week of last June.

http://www.tvec.gov.lk

Donald

Technical and Vocational Education and Training Guide for 2008 has been published.

This book contains all available courses from agriculture livestock , Aviation, Computer, Electrical, Gem and Jewellery, Foot ware, office management, printing, textile teacher training, Wood related etc etc

Please contact
Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission
354/2 Nipunatha Piyasa
Colombo 5

584-9291

http://www.tvec.gov
info@tvec.gov.lk

Donald Gaminitillake
“I set the standard”