Cabinet approval is being sought to enable India to select a supplier to develop the IT system for the Indian-funded digital ID project after the disqualification of the two initial bidders, The Sunday Morning learns.
Although the Government issued a tender last year to select a service provider for the system, the two Indian bidders of that tender have been disqualified.
It is learnt that they had been disqualified due to their inability to comply with fundamental criteria.
For example, the conditions had included that the vendor should have engaged in a similar project before as well.
Last year, the Indian Government provided 15% of the total funds needed – amounting to INR 450 million – for the implementation of the Unitary Digital Identity Framework project in Sri Lanka. According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the vendor should be an Indian company.
After the initial bidders were disqualified, based on the recommendations of the Cabinet-Appointed Evaluation Committee and the Technical Evaluation Committee, it is learnt that the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) had sought approval from the Cabinet to allow India to select the vendor as well.
When contacted by The Sunday Morning, State Minister of Technology Kanaka Herath said that the vendor would be selected by the Indian Government.
“We need Cabinet approval to roll out the project, which we will advertise in India. We simplified the procurement process and we will tender it. Indian companies have experience and the MoU also says Indian companies should make the platform,” said Herath.
There have been several attempts in the past to establish similar projects. In 2015, a proposal was tabled in the Cabinet to issue new electronic National Identity Cards (NICs) to all eligible citizens within two years, followed by the launch of the ‘Smart ID’ in late 2017 to act as an interim solution until the e-NICs were to be issued. In 2011, the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led Government also attempted to implement a similar tool.
India also introduced its own ‘Aadhaar’ card for its citizens, where biometric data is attached to a unique digital ID, and it is now regarded as the world’s largest biometric database, home to information of approximately 1.1 billion citizens. However, allegations regarding privacy of citizens and Government surveillance have been raised by rights activists in India.