GIC - 1919 service, turns eight

The Government Information Centre (GIC) 1919 service has been marked by 'above-average' courteousness and professionalism while maintaining standards. The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) have contributed much towards this, Minister of Telecommunication and IT Ranjith Siyambalapitiya told the media at the SLT head office in Colombo recently.

The briefing was held to raise awareness among the public on the achievements and the future plans of the GIC which was launched in August 2006 under the guidance of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministry, Secretary Gotabaya Jayaratne, Chairman, ICTA, Prof. P.W. Epasinghe, ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura, Group CEO, SLT Lalith de Silva and SLT Board members were also present.

According to the synopsis presented by the Minister, the GIC began with information pertaining to 20 government institutions.Today, it provides information on approximately 2,000 services of 300 institutions.

Since its inception in 2006 to date, the GIC has received approximately eight million calls from the public, of which more than half the calls were from the Western Province.

In 2013, the calls received by GIC exceeded 1.6 million. The website of the GIC www.gic.gov.lk has improved in terms of content.

The facilities available through the GIC website include downloading applications to obtain services from Government institutions; lodging of complaints by the public and the provision of supportive services for obtaining State e-services, information about train timetables, tea prices and fish prices and water levels in reservoirs. This can also be obtained via GIC's SMS service 'gov sms'.

The public has availed themselves of the majority of the services provided by the GIC. The majority of the calls made to 1919 relate to information pertaining to the Railways Department, Divisional Secretariats, Police Department, Motor Traffic Department, Immigration and Emigration Department, Education Ministry and Department of Examinations.

Group CEO, SLT, Lalith de Silva said, "SLT Contact Centre, which could be considered the heart of SLT customer care, maintains two main services. Of these the SLT hotline 1212 receives the maximum number of calls from customers.

Eight SLT Contact Centres throughout the country provide 24-hour customer care services to more than 25,000 SLT customers including Megaline, Citylink, Broadband and Peo TV on a daily basis."

"A team of efficient customer care staff comprising about 400 employees provide information on services using multiple platforms on a par with international standards," he said.

"The second service offered by SLT Contact Centre is 1919 for government information services which is a government initiative that provides citizen centric public services and we are proud to be a partner," de Silva said.

"GIC 1919 enables all Sri Lankans to obtain accurate information with regard to government services. It receives over 150,000 telephone calls per month. We respond to 95 percent of the calls for Government information within 15 seconds. The call-response performance of last month was 98.18%".

The GIC provides information pertaining to the government sector services in Sinhala, Tamil and English, according to the preference of customers. It is operational 365 days of the year, from 8 am to 8 pm.

The GIC has the facilities to provide information services to organisations in Sri Lanka and abroad.

ICTA Program Specialist Thushara Suraweera highlighted various aspects of GIC 1919. He described the main features of GIC 1919 such as service delivery including information services, help desk services, digital intermediary services, complaint and grievance handling services, special (seasonal) services and other value added services.

"The GIC provides over 65 online services through basic phone calls, such as train schedules, job opportunities abroad, flight schedules, examination results, economic indicators, medical services and contact details," he said.

The benefits gained through ICT enhancement are being realised throughout the country and is recognised locally and globally. In 2014, Sri Lanka jumped 41 places in the UN eGovernment Development Index.

In 2012, the UNeGDI of Sri Lanka was 115 out of 193 countries whereas in 2014 it went up to 74 out of 192 countries. In 2014, Sri Lanka's global country ranking jumped five places to become 16th in the A. T. Kearney's Global Services Location Index.

The GIC is a flagship project that has made a significant contribution to the ICT achievements in the country. It has received several international awards including a commendation from the United Nations E-Government Survey 2014.