ICTA CEO speaks out

This is based on the letter to written by ICTA CEO Muhunthan Canagey who resigned from his post yesterday to ICTA Chairperson, Board of Directors, senior management, colleagues and friends:

By Muhunthan Canagey

My warm thoughts of the past, the current and the future for ICTA and for Digital Sri Lanka and my resignation

I write to you with the greatest sense of happiness that the vision for Digital Sri Lanka has been planted. The vision, strategy and road maps including identifying and designing the 80 plus projects have already been successfully completed. All these were done within a period of 20 months being in office.

You all would have known when I took office in April 2015, there were no roadmaps for 2015 and beyond, the organisation ICTA did not have annual reports and financial accounts for the period of 2013, 2014 and management accounts for 2015. The organisation was left in debt of over Rs. 300 million. You would also know the projects that the entire organisation were carrying out was less than Rs. 600 million.

At the beginning, most of the team members at ICTA would have not thought the vision for Digital Sri Lanka brought by the new management was attainable, or could be developed by ICTA. It took several months of meetings, architecture and technology design in order to visualise the master grand plan for digital Sri Lanka and also to design components and identify how they best fit in.

It was wonderful to have worked with a team of dynamic and intelligent individuals in drawing up subsets of the master plan to fit the big picture. I am happy that many of the core components have already started to be delivered and the next series of projects have commenced.

In terms of organisational infrastructure and resources, you all would know that the organisation did not have any collaborative project management tools, resource planning tools and the very basic structure for deploying and implementing projects at a pace expected by its stakeholders and the public. However, we identified the gaps and implemented the resources required.

All the above was achieved as a result of hard work, determination, courage, focus and the ability to speak out openly and genuinely. These are the qualities that need to be instilled in order for a country’s prosperity and human evolution.

Now comes the hard part which I do need to let my team members know. I have been asked to resign by President Maithripala Sirisena which was communicated to me by Minister Harin Fernando. As you all know, I am a person who has built my career by pure hard work and maintained the highest levels of professionalism and integrity. I will never be part of aiding and abetting any fraud or corruption or delay in any implementation of digitisation in Sri Lanka. I have been raised from a child to speak my mind, boldly, fearlessly and honestly which are the very basic principles I live by and the rights that should prevail to me and any other human being. I am not willing to let go of that just because I need to protect my job at ICTA.

Under this circumstance it is regrettable that I am tendering my resignation and start commencing my handing over of my duties.

I would want to take a moment to thank the people who have touched my heart and supported me throughout my journey at ICTA. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Harin Fernando, Chairperson Chithranganie Mubarak, the Board of Directors and mostly my colleagues, who have now become friends who have stood by me and supported me during my period of work at ICTA.

You and I know that if the vision that has been envisaged and strategised be implemented, Sri Lanka will become a nation of self-generated prosperity using digitisation. The next generation of kids will thrive from such implementations. It is our duty collectively to see Sri Lanka moving forward and we owe a moral responsibility to ensure that people do have equity within our society. 

On this note I would like to humbly ask everyone to put aside any differences and ensure that the implementation proceeds and deliveries keep happening. I would also want the entire team to give the fullest support to the new CEO who would takeover. I wish all the members at ICTA the very best and a great career ahead.