Technology

Civil Service goes e-governance

By Gamini WARUSHAMANA

People who need to get copies of their birth, marriage certificates or death certificates of their relatives now enjoy an efficient and cost effective service at all Divisional Secretariats (DS) in the Colombo district.

The civil administration service in the district is gradually transforming into e-governance. The office environment, working culture as well as the attitudes of the officials are undergoing change.

This computerised certificate issuing system is the first in a series of such programs that are on the pipeline under the Re-Engineering Government program. While this system is successfully implemented in all DS divisions in the Colombo district officials of the DS divisions are being trained at the Computer Centre in the Colombo District Secretariat on the other modules of the next initiatives.

These certificates are the most important documents that people need in most of their dealings with Government as well as financial institutions. For instance the birth certificate is essential to obtain the National Identity Card, Passport or the Driving Licence.

However, obtaining copies of these certificates was a difficult and a time consuming task until recently. People had to wait three or four months to get a copy of the certificate and the officials who issue them had to rummage around thousands of hard copies in dusty record rooms where all the files are stored.

Understanding the burden on people and the hardships officials undergo in this obsolete file handling system the Colombo District Secretary sought ICTA assistance to develop a convenient method to handle these documents. ICTA after having consultations with software developers who are experienced in document management systems identified a suitable solution.

However, there were no funds to implement the project. After having discussions with several Government institutions and NGOs the Plan International, an INGO agreed to support to implement the system in five coastal DS divisions in the Colombo district where most of the people have lost these documents in the tsunami in 2004. Plan International provided Rs.20 million from its tsunami rehabilitation fund. Later the Colombo District Secretary found another 5.2 million to implement the system in all 13 DS divisions in the district.

After developing the software the original copies of over 20 million certificates were scanned and stored in a data base. The software was designed after studying the whole manual system that was followed previously. The security aspects, protection of the original copies, authorisation, possibility of malpractices and duplication of data and extracting them out of the system was thoroughly considered and measures were taken to avoid them. The access to the system is restricted and a host of security measures are in place to prevent any possible fraud. The software designed by the University of Colombo uses the open source technology to minimise the cost.

Head of the Re-Engineering Sri Lanka program of the ICTA D.C. Dissanayake said that the objectives of the project have been achieved and today the people are enjoying the benefits.

Now, with new technically it takes only a few seconds to get a copy of the certificate and with all approvals it takes only a few minutes. There are eight characters to search the original certificate. The date of birth, part of the name or at least the name of the mother can be inserted into the system to search a birth certificate.

Today all the old copies of the certificates have been scanned and entered into the system and the new certificates are also input to the system on a regular basis. This computerised system provides many advantages. It avoids the use of fraudulent documents in many ways.

Firstly, to obtain a copy of the true certificate is possible and convenient. Secondly the agencies such as the Department of Registration of Persons and Immigration and Emigration can access the database and check whether the certificate provided by a person is the original by checking the auto generated serial number in the new copies.

Today this facility is available at the Department of Registration of Persons. On the other hand all details of the issued copies are available in the system and it can be verified at any time.

The system will be integrated connecting all 13 DS divisions of the district and it will enable people to obtain their certificates from any of the DS divisions. For instance a person born in the Colombo DS division can get a copy of his birth certificate from the Avissawella DS office.

The Deputy District Registrar of the Colombo DS division G.G.N.S Gamage said that today people commend the new system and they get various benefits. Now we can find certificates that could not be found for many years.

There are lot of issues in the manual system. In some cases the births or marriages were registered after several years but the people do not know the exact year. In this instance the manual search is tedious and difficult because we go through only the records of the year they mention.

In some instances some people do not even know their registered name as they use other names. Today even such certificates can be found within a few seconds. In the first six months of the year Thimbirigasyaya DS division has issued 95,000 copies of certificates.

Replication of the computer system in all DS division in the country has now commenced with Rs.100 million financial assistance from the ADB. Today Puttalam district has completed the implementation of the system and within a short period of time the whole country will be covered and networked.

ODEL deploys eSenze HR solutions

ODEL established a complete HR solution for its 500 plus employees, encompassing its 7 stores in Sri Lanka.

Greenwich Lanka Private Limited (GLPL), a fully owned subsidiary of PCH Holdings is a foremost provider of IT infrastructure solutions and consultancy services. Operating for more than a decade, GLPL has provided e-HR solutions to many of Sri Lanka's top ranked companies through eSenze, GLPL's foremost e-HR solutions brand. eSenze specializes in recruitment, training and development, performance management, employee data storage and personnel file management, time attendance, payroll, online requests for leave, etc. ODEL's requirement provided eSenze with a unique opportunity to tailor a solution aimed at managing all the areas of HR management for the store, enabling a user-friendly system for the management to oversee the employees.

COO ODEL, Arjuna Samaratunga commenting on the implementation of the eSenze solution said, "The ease of operations since implementation is significant. Our main concern was to obtain a fully integrated system to facilitate the expansion of the company's business activities, whilst maintaining simplicity and user friendliness and we are happy to have achieved this objective through the eSenze solution."

Director of GLPL, Thariq Sanoon stated that he has every confidence in eSenze's ability to not only benefit customers by simplifying their HR management systems, but enhance the overall employee performance of the organization through effective management of the Human resource aspect. "We are very content about delivering the project to the expectations of ODEL. Swift adaptability to client requirement was the key reason for our success and apart from the comprehensive solution, our commitment and flexibility helped us provide ODEL with exactly what they were looking for". Since eSenze specializes in tailor-made solutions and with both GLPL and ODEL's small HR team working cohesively, the object of automating the innovative HR practices of ODEL became a reality through the cost effective eSenze brand of solutions. eSenze's provision of a highly flexible option, leaving space for potential add-on's of modules that may become necessary in the future provided ODEL with a continuously developing system for their HR management needs. GLPL believes in not only, providing its customers with quality management solutions, but in following them up with the additional developments that inevitably become necessary as an organization grows. This attribute will benefit the relationship between ODEL and GLPL in the future.

Head of Human Resources for ODEL, Indika Liyanahewage was enthusiastic in his praise of the system provided by GLPL. "Right from the start eSenze was very adaptable to our needs. The entire implementation process of the system was very fast and easy, with a very user-friendly design, which helped the managers to grasp the concepts as well as to make quick usage of the system. In fact, the entire process took only 6 months from the point at which we gave eSenze the contract to the actual implementation. We have been using the system for over a year and a half now and I am very happy with the after sales service provided for eSenze solution by GLPL". Liyanahewage went on to say that, he saw a lot of potential on the system for all the future developments, which ODEL would embark on in the future.