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In a bid to ensure integrity and efficiency of Sri Lanka’s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system, the Government in September last year considered and in November approved an unsolicited proposal from the Singapore-based GBS Technology Services in partnership with VFS.
The policy decision to outsource the processing of the ETA scheme came amidst SLT-Mobitel which has been the solutions provider for the Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) since 2012 being ready to roll out improvements following a Cabinet decision made in July 2021.
Private sector analysts yesterday said the Government should have put the unsolicited proposal to ramp up Sri Lanka’s visa processing by the consortia GBS-IVS-VSF to greater scrutiny including extending an invitation to incumbent service provider SLT-Mobitel to match or better the former.
The primary reason being the GBS-IVS-VSF is charging $ 25 for processing of visa from every visitor to Sri Lanka whereas the majority-State-owned SLT-Mobitel was providing the technology solution for DIE free of charge as a national service and also in compliance with national security and data protection guidelines. The latter is because though SLT-Mobitel had quoted $ 1 per ETA, to date the Government hadn’t paid. SLT-Mobitel had also invested for a hardware upgrade and was ready to roll out after the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent political cum economic crises delayed the implementation.
Cost effectiveness of the outsourcing option versus SLT-Mobitel is being widely debated since $ 25 per ETA is perceived as costly by the travel trade on top of increased visa fees. Based on 2.5 million tourist arrivals for a year and assuming all those don’t qualify for free visa, the fees collected by GBS-IVS-VFS will be a whopping $ 62.5 million or Rs. 19 billion. Some argue if SLT-Mobitel were to do the same, the cost to the visitor will be lower and income can be retained in Sri Lanka instead of an outflow of foreign exchange. Another issue to be clarified is whether the Government will have to reimburse $ 25 per ETA processing of those coming to Sri Lanka on free visa.
In November last year SLT-Mobitel wrote to President Ranil Wickremesinghe about its readiness to roll out the improvement but there had been no response or the purported message conveyed that the matter will be looked into, had no headway. SLT-Mobitel had also written to the Public Security Ministry.
Whilst the Government and Public Security Minister Tiran Alles could be commended for keenness to ensure integrity and efficiency of the ETA system along with other benefits for Sri Lanka, transparency and integrity were critical.
Minister Alles told Daily FT sister paper Daily Mirror on Friday that there wasn’t a need to tender because the consortium was the leader in the field. Alles is scheduled to have a media briefing today on the outsourcing of visa processing.
However analysts said the country would have got the best deal if SLT-Mobitel too was requested to come up with its own proposal or opened it up to other international companies in the interest of transparency and competitive bidding than opting for an unsolicited proposal irrespective of it coming from a global leader.
Instead, SLT-Mobitel was abruptly told to switch off its solutions to pave the way for the commencement of outsourced operations.
