Peoples' Bank awaits expert opinion

People's Bank is awaiting an "expert opinion" in connection with the digitization solution process.

The bank has asked two leading IT institutions to submit an independent opinion which can be discussed at the next meeting of the board of directors, a senior official said. People's Bank had begun initiatives to make it the 'first digitized bank' in Sri Lanka through a Rs. 600 million project.

But the bidding process was criticized by a group of employees, unions and certain politicians who alleged that the bidding process was not transparent. However, the bank in a statement said; the bids that were received were evaluated by a Bank Technical Committee to ascertain whether the bids comply with the evaluated BOM.

The process was concluded in August 2016; the Bidder submission was compiled by the TEC committee and intimated to our Supplies Department. As the bank strictly followed the set procurement procedures and norms of the Bank, project timeline was extended from March 2016 to September 2016, while the Hardware readiness was initially planned lobe finalized by June 2016.

Accordingly the total time plan was adjusted and the bank is yet to award the hardware to the bidder.

The bank has neither awarded the order nor taken any shortcuts with the procedure as implied by the press reports.

The bank has rigorously and transparently followed all laid down procedures and regulations pertaining to the project, of which progress has regularly been updated to the Board of Directors.

At the last meeting of the Board of Directors, the People's Bank digitization project received the consent of the members except one member who had concerns and it was decided to refer this to an IT expert to obtain an independent opinion for discussion at the next meeting of the Board of Directors, to make the appropriate decision.