Before the United States’ US Digital Service (USDS) was renamed the United States DOGE Service (USDS)- in reference to the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, the department was instrumental in improving government tech systems by bringing in private-sector expertise.
Its recruits came from big-tech companies like Amazon and Google, for short, typically two-year long stints to work within public offices.
The professionals ranged from engineers, product managers, and digital policy experts, recruited with the intent to help the government solve complex and technical challenges.
Similar precedent practices can be observed in Sri Lanka’s Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), however, Sri Lanka is yet to fully embrace such practices in its drive to adapt to building upon its own digital public infrastructure (DPI).
While Sri Lanka’s push toward a DPI has accelerated in the last two years, with initiatives such as digital ID systems, digital lockers, and a universal payment interface (UPI) coming to the fore, it is critical to understand whether Sri Lanka is effectively translating these ambitions into practical outcomes.
To answer this, The Daily Morning Business spoke to LIRNEAsia CEO Helani Galpaya, who echoed that Sri Lanka could adopt similar models to those that exist in the US and India, but doing so would require innovative approaches to talent acquisition, governance, and public-private partnerships (PPPs).
“One of the key challenges is attracting skilled professionals from the private sector to work on government projects. Most of the money is with the private sector, and highly skilled employees may not be willing to leave their permanent jobs forever,” Galpaya said.
However, she proposed a potential solution: Secondments.
“There should surely be a way of seconding people into government for a limited period- a year or two,” Galpaya explained. “The accumulation of knowledge and skill in the private sector is incredibly important to public sector digitisation.”
To make this feasible, Sri Lanka would need to create institutions that can offer competitive salaries, bypassing rigid government pay scales. Organisations like the ICTA could play a pivotal role here, acting as semi-independent entities with the flexibility to attract top talent.
Before diving into large-scale digitization, the government must build its internal capacity, Galpaya says, which includes developing interoperability standards, data privacy frameworks, and robust procurement processes.
“You need enough capacity in government to do the initial legwork,” Galpaya emphasised. “Think through the interoperability standards, data privacy, and how to design and run a good procurement process.”
Without this foundational work, even the most talented private-sector professionals would struggle to deliver meaningful results.
Sri Lanka’s current approach to PPPs often falls short of true collaboration.
“What we have at the moment are very rarely partnerships,” Galpaya observed. “They are contracted work. Government pays all the money, maybe with World Bank or ADB funding, and the private sector delivers a product or operates the system. That’s not a partnership- it’s like going to a shop and buying something.”
A true partnership, Galpaya argues, requires shared risk and aligned incentives.
For example, in some countries, toll roads are built by private companies that recover their investment through tolls. The government benefits from improved infrastructure, while the private sector profits from high traffic volumes.
“We need to think about how that structure can be applied in government payments,” she suggested. “For instance, a UPI-type system like in India could enable third-party payment facilitators to compete, driving innovation while the government provides the underlying infrastructure.”
While private-sector involvement is crucial, it comes with risks. One major concern is the potential for monopolies, where a single provider becomes indispensable.
“The danger is that the private sector ends up with a monopoly on some service,” Galpaya warned. “If only they know how to issue a passport or hold all the historical data, we’re locked in. We need legal instruments to prevent this and ensure we can switch providers if necessary.”
Transparency and the ability to course-correct are essential to avoid such pitfalls.
Sri Lanka already has a successful example of public-private collaboration in LankaPay, a partnership between banks and the Central Bank.
“It’s a public-private governance model,” Galpaya noted. “There are many ways for the private sector to get involved, as long as it’s done with transparency and the ability to adapt.”
As Sri Lanka embarks on its journey to develop a national digital ID system, the experiences of India’s Aadhaar programme loom large. Praised for its scale and efficiency, Aadhaar has also faced criticism for privacy breaches and exclusion errors that disproportionately affected marginalised communities.
For Sri Lanka, the challenge lies in designing a system that balances innovation with inclusivity and data security.
One of the key lessons Sri Lanka may have to learn from India is the importance of involving civil society in the design and governance of digital ID systems.
“Civil society was the most vibrant opposition to some of Aadhaar’s problems,” Galpaya noted, highlighting how activists and advocacy groups played a crucial role in identifying and addressing systemic flaws. In Sri Lanka, civil society could serve as a watchdog, ensuring that marginalised communities are not left behind.
To further avoid the privacy breaches that plagued Aadhaar, Sri Lanka must prioritise data security from the outset.
“You need legislation and transparency built into the design of the system,” Galpaya emphasised. “Privacy by design is crucial.” India’s Aadhaar system, for instance, follows the principle of data minimisation, capturing only essential information like biometric data, name, date of birth, gender, and address.
However, Galpaya cautioned that data minimisation alone is not enough.
“In India, the violations happened not because of Aadhaar itself, but because other organisations misused the data,” she said.
For Sri Lanka, the key to success lies in a multi-stakeholder approach that includes civil society, robust legislation, and privacy-preserving design.
“You have to start with the design,” Galpaya stressed. “Otherwise, you’ve got nothing.”
By learning from India’s successes and failures, Sri Lanka can build a digital ID system that is not only efficient but also inclusive and secure.
As digital economies increasingly shape how businesses and consumers interact, traditional tax systems designed around physical goods are struggling to keep pace. The global digital sector is overwhelmingly dominated by a handful of giants- primarily based in the US, with a few notable players from Europe and China.
Companies like Amazon, Meta (formerly Facebook), and Google stand at the centre of this transformation, raising difficult questions about fairness and equity in taxation.
Countries outside the US have begun to push back against the current tax regime, seeking ways to capture a fair share of digital revenues. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has proposed a global minimum tax rate of 15% on profits, though this remains an ideal rather than a reality.
The intent behind the proposal is to prevent a race to the bottom, where countries compete for business by offering minimal taxes- such as Ireland’s famously low corporate tax rate- at the cost of national revenue.
As Sri Lanka’s digital transformation journey is still in its early stages, and while the government is focusing on the foundational elements like digital ID and UPI, the real challenge lies in creating an ecosystem that leverages private-sector expertise without compromising public interest, enhances inclusivity, data security, and civil society engagement in designing digital systems.
The experiences of India’s Aadhaar programme highlight the importance of inclusivity, data security, and civil society engagement in designing digital ID systems.