NPP thrives on misinformation aided by lost bidders of business contracts: Analysts

Popular Presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power (NPP) is being accused of thriving on dishing misinformation judging by accusations in two recent incidents.

One was the misinformation on the shortage of passports and facts concerning the ePassport tender, and the other was on IT system upgrade at People’s Bank.

Analysts said JVP MP Vijitha Herath and former MP Wasantha Samarasinghe went public about alleged irregularities only to be exposed that the misinformation was from parties which didn’t win the respective competitive tenders or those with vested interests.

During a media briefing on the passport crisis, Herath opted not to reveal the fact that the Machine Reading Passport (MRP) has been supplied for over two decades sans a proper tender but alleged unfounded irregularities on the 5 million numbers epassport tender as well as interim measures by the Government to allocate 750,000 MRPs to ease the shortage. The higher cost quoted by one of the parties that lost out on the epassport tender was conveniently ignored but JVP/NPP chose to accuse the winning bidder. The Opposition party too didn’t disclose the existing MRP supplier’s failures and conditions to supply MRP in the interim period.

In the process, JVP/NPP for reasons best known to itself tarnished the image of reputed firms in the consortium that won the epassport bid.

With regard to allegations of improper transaction pertaining to an IT system upgrade at People’s Bank, the State owned giant described the accusations as “entirely unfounded.” People’s Bank which now has the largest base of 3 million registered digital customers also categorically denied any involvement in any improper activity.

In its statement, People’s Bank said the core banking IT system currently in use was first implemented in 2004 and has been pivotal in cementing People’s Bank’s leadership in the digital banking sphere.

In keeping with its commitment to progress and the need to leverage cutting-edge technology, the bank upgrades all its IT systems from time to time. Accordingly, the bank is in the process of evaluating a proposal to upgrade its core banking IT system to further improve technology and operational efficiency and offer enhanced services to customers.

The technical discussions and evaluations relating to this proposal are still ongoing as per prudent and standard procurement practices.

No agreements have been signed and no monetary transactions have been committed with any party in relation to the above proposal. People’s Bank said it remains committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and governance in all of its operations. “We urge the public to rely on verified information and not be misled by misinformation,” People’s Bank added.