ICTA -e -GOV-policy Review Report

Internship at 2008 /ICT /026

ABSTRACT

"We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of
verbal instruction." --Malcolm Gladwell

As undergraduates of the Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology (BICT)
Degree programme offered by the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), the final
semester in our 3rd year is reserved for the internship period which we are to undergo for a
period of 6 months.

My Six-month Industrial Internship Program work term was with the Re-Engineering
Government Unit of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka for
the period beginning on 14th March 2011 till 31st August 2011. I was involved in the area of e-
Government Policy during my work term, all of which will be outlined in this report. This report
will cover some background information on the projects I was involved in, as well as details on
how the projects were developed.

I acquired many new Management skills throughout my work term. I acquired new knowledge
in the area of e-Government Policy. I also brushed up my Analyzing skills while doing the Policy
Compliance Analysis. Then I got introduced to the area of research and how to approach it.
Most importantly, the work experience was very good which included good fellowship,
cooperative teamwork and accepting responsibilities. Although I spent a lot of time learning
new things, I found that I was well trained in certain areas that helped me substantially in my
projects.

This report concludes with my overall impressions of my work experience as well as my opinion
of the Industrial Internship Program in general.

University of Colombo School of Computing
2


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to acknowledge the following people for their support and assistance with this
internship.

First and foremost, I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to the Professional Development
Center, Dr. Shiromi Arunatileka and Ms. U.D.A.W. Gunasinghe for coordinating this internship
programme for all of us.

During my internship Program, the staff at ICTA and persons guiding me was very helpful and
extended their valuable guidance and help whenever required for the projects which I worked
on.

I am very thankful to my immediate supervisor Mr. Sameera Jayawardena (Project Manager-
HRD) for his invaluable guidance and advice, friendly support during my Internship.

I also thank Mr.Wasantha Deshapriya (Program Director – Re-engineering Government) who
helped us in the e-Government Policy on Audit Trails by sharing his vast experience and giving
valuable direction to the project.

I am thankful to Mrs. Nalini Senasekera (Program Head-HRD) for her guidance and allowing me
to take on the additional job duties of this monitoring project.

I would also like to thank all employees at ICTA for their support, guidance and for providing us
with the opportunity to work with them and the experience gained. Specially Mr. Chathura
Sammandapperuma, Mr.Dinuka Perera, Mr.Indika and Mrs.Chathurani, for sharing their
knowledge and experience.

Overall, the above team made my stay at ICTA an enjoyable one and I am grateful to them for
making it so.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 2

Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................................................... 3

Acronyms ....................................................................................................................................................... 5

Chapter 1: Company profile .......................................................................................................................... 6

Background ................................................................................................................................................ 6

e-srilanka ................................................................................................................................................... 6

Company Introduction............................................................................................................................. 11

Board of Directors ................................................................................................................................... 12

Leadership Team ..................................................................................................................................... 12

Management Team ................................................................................................................................. 12

ICTA Teams & Departments .................................................................................................................... 13

Software and Hardware used .................................................................................................................. 13

Chapter 2: Training and experience gained ................................................................................................. 14

e-government policy adoption ................................................................................................................ 14

Work Experience ..................................................................................................................................... 15

summary of activities .............................................................................................................................. 16

Chapter 3: Observation and Comments ...................................................................................................... 17

Chapter 4: Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 18

Reference .................................................................................................................................................... 18

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ACRONYMS

ICTA Information and Communication Technology Agency
ICT Information and Communication Technology
GoSL Government of SriLanka
CINTEC Computer and Information Technology Council of Sri Lanka

P

5


CHAPTER 1: COMPANY PROFILE

This chapter carries information on how this organization came in to existence, what they do,
etc…

BACKGROUND

“Sri Lanka has, in my estimation, one of the most mature and robust e-governance initiatives of

any of the countries I have visited to date”. Michael Tiemann, VP, -Red Hat.

Performance of government affects quality of life, economic growth and voter behavior. To
that extent, it is essential to streamline the business of governance. Technology has been a
widely used tool to increase productivity and to remove inefficiencies in various industries in
the late 20th century. However, the business of governance has been late in adopting
technology solutions to increase its efficiency. The primary reason for this anomaly is that there
are numerous technology issues that need to be resolved before a true e-Governance solution
can be adopted.

Therefore taking in to account the significant role ICT plays in today’s world; The Government
of Sri Lanka developed the e-Sri Lanka Roadmap with the objective of harnessing ICTs towards
achieving socio-economic development in the country. The vision of e-Sri Lanka is “to take the
dividends of ICT to every village, to every citizen and to every business and transform the way
government thinks and works”. The e-Sri Lanka vision and roadmap gave birth to a nation-wide
ICT for development initiative, addressing all sectors of the economy and society, where ICT is
used to enhance national competitiveness, reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of
citizens.
E-SRILANKA

The design of e-Sri Lanka is based on the need to take a more holistic approach to development
using ICT. In other words, economic and social development is the overall objective with ICT
merely playing the role of an enabler of development.

E-Sri Lanka was the approach undertaken to accomplish the objective: foster social integration,
peace, economic growth and poverty reduction.

Figure 1: Design of e-Sri Lanka

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It was expected that through implementation of the e Sri Lanka initiative, it would create a
e-Sri
more enabling environment where citizens would have access to new technologies to ease
their day to day activities as well as cooperating with public and private sectors as well as the
private
civil society to make sure the objectives of this initiative are achieved.

Objective:
“To harness and exploit ICT for achieving broad based growth across key sectors of the
To
economy and society, in support of the overall development goals of economic growth, equity
development
and peace building.”

Expected outcomes:
• More effective, citizen
citizen-centred & business-friendly government.
• Empowerment of the rural poor, disadvantaged groups, women & youth through
increased and affordable access to information and communication tools.
• Developed leadership & skills in ICT.
• Employment in the ICT and IT enabled services industry.
• Enhanced competitiveness of user industries & services.

Figure 2: Components of e-Sri Lanka

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E-Sri Lanka is composed of six core programme areas:

Re-Engineering
Engineering Information ICT HR Capacity
Government Infrastructure Building

ICT Investment & ICT Policy,
Private Sector Leadership & E-Society
E
Development Capacity Building

Let’s see in detail what each of these areas contributes to.

RE-ENGINEERING GOVERNME
ENGINEERING GOVERNMENT

Re-engineering Government Programme is fundamental reform of government with the
engineering
objective of improving citizen service delivery. This will be achieved by improving the way
delivery.
government works, by first re engineering and then technologically empowering government
re-engineering
business processes, including government government (G2G), government
government-to-government government-to-citizen (G2C)
and government-to-business (G2B)
business (G2B).

Vision: To provide citizen services in the most efficient manner by improving the way government works
by re-engineering and technologically empowering government business processes
engineering processes.

There are many advantages which are expected out of this programme.

• Increase the efficiency, transparency, effectiveness
rease
• Reduce the wastage
• Increase the reliability & high security for the information
• Reduce data repetition as well as increase the data consistency

FIGURE 3: E-SERVICES LIST

8


E-SOCIETY

The e-Society Programme seeks to use ICT as a k lever for socio-economic development at
key economic
the community level. Ensuring equitable and balanced access to information and knowledge,
especially within the rural society, and representation of marginalized and deprived groups, will
promote equitable growth and assist in closing gaps between urban and rural areas.

• Raise awareness among rural communities about the uses and benefits of ICT through
a strategic and sustained communications campaign.

• Develop multi-stakeholder partnerships in ICT for Development. These partnerships
stakeholder
will network ICTA with other organizations and institutions that are engaged in
promoting an e-Society.
Society.

• Establish a grants fund that will adopt a bottom up approach to solicit and develop
innovative solutions using ICT to benefit rural poor, women, displaced persons, and
rural
those residing in conflict
conflict-affected areas.

ICT HR CAPACITY BUILDING
DING

This will support re-engineering government by equipping public sector employees with the
engineering
required ICT, leadership and management skills and competencies. ICTA will also encourage
competencies.
international training institutions to invest in Sri Lanka and increase the pool of ICT trained
professionals so that Sri Lanka has the numbers needed to cater to inward investment
opportunities and is seen as an attractive destination for high quality human resources.

INFORMATION INFRASTR
INFRASTRUCTURE

This Programme is a user
user-friendly and state-of-the-art technology or ICT infrastructure
art
established throughout Sri Lanka that enables all citizens to have equal and affordable access
to dynamic information, modern communications, electronic services, and content, creating
the enabling environment for e
e-government, e-commerce and e-business.

9


ICT INVESTMENT & PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT

ICT Private Sector Development Programme has parallel aims of supporting the domestic ICT
sector and the ICT export industry of Sri Lanka. For the domestic sector, ICTA is aiming to
increase utilization of ICT across all sectors, particularly in government. The second objective is
to re-brand Sri Lanka as a destination of choice for ICT products, services and investments.
These twin aims will aim to create a competitive ICT industry and contribute to achieving
sustainable economic growth and employment creation in Sri Lanka.

So, this is done by:

• Promoting growth of the local private sector by providing ICT solutions
• Promotion of local ICT products & services to the global market, etc.

ICT POLICY, LEADERSHIP & INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The ICT Policy, Leadership & Institutional Capacity Building Programme focuses on developing
a conducive environment to achieve the objectives of ‘e-Sri Lanka’ and establishing the
necessary institutional framework. Its goal is to create a pro-active policy and a regulatory
environment that is supportive of ICT reform and ICT-based development, develop the ICT
leadership and institutional capacity, and communicate these initiatives and policies to the
wider stakeholder audience.

The Programme is implemented through the following Core Strategies:

• Facilitate the formulation and adoption of a National ICT Policy, ICT Action Plan and
necessary Legal Framework in collaboration with the Administrative Reforms
Committee and relevant stakeholder groups.

• Provide focus and leadership for e-Sri Lanka and for ICT for development in general,
including building e-leadership skills among senior government officials, business and
civil society leaders.

• Establish ICTA as a ‘centre of excellence’ in ICT for development, through timely and
cost effective implementation of e-Sri Lanka and building external capacity in project
management.

10


COMPANY INTRODUCTION

The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) was established in
July 2003 and pursuant to Information and Communication Technology Act No. 27 of 2003, (IC (ICT
Act), ICTA was identified as the legal successor to CINTEC and became the apex ICT institution
of the Government, presently functioning within the purview of the Presidential Secretariat.

Under the ICT Act No. 27 of 2003 ICTA was empowered to formulate and implement strategies
and programmes in both the Government and the private sector and pursuant thereto ICTA
prepared programs and strategies on Information and Communication Technology, which are
presently embodied in the “e-Sri Lanka Development Project”.

Location
160/24, Kirimandala Mawatha, Colombo 05
05.
Contact
e-mail: info@icta.lk
Tele-phone: +94-11-236 9100
Fax: 94-11-236 9091
Website: http://www.icta.lk

Employees
80
Funded Agencies:

VISION OF ICTA

“To adopt ICT in all its aspects to make government more efficient and effective, improve access
To
to government services, and create a mo citizen centric government”
more

The vision of ICTA, as shown above, is to promote use of Information and Communication
Technology for the development of the economy as well as the community. They hope to do
this by taking the advantages of ICT to each and every corner of the land and re
every re-engineering
the quality of services provided by the government by equipping them with the needed
knowledge and skills in this regard.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

• Acting Chairman Professor P. W. Epasinghe
• Board Director Dr. R.B.Ekanayake
• Board Director Mr. M.D.Ravi Senanayake
• Board Director Mr. Earle Fernando
• Board Director Mr. Neil Umagiliya
• Board Director Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne
• Board Director Mr. Sajith.R.Attygalle
• Board Director Prof. Vijaya Kumar

LEADERSHIP TEAM

• COO/ Director Reshan Dewapura
• Program Director- Re-engineering Government Wasantha Deshapriya
• Program Director / Legal Advisor Jayantha Fernando

MANAGEMENT TEAM

• Senior Programme Head- Strategic Communications & Media Athula Pushpakumara
• Procurement Advisor Christy Perera
• Senior Programme Head - e-Society Chitranganie Mubarak
• Programme Head - Re-engineering Government D.C.Dissanayake
• Programme Head - Administration Radley Dissanayake
• Programme Head- Monitoring & Evaluation Jagath Seneviratna
• Head of Technology & Chief Software Architect Sanjaya Karunasena
• Programme Head - Information Infrastructure Dil Piyaratna
• Programme Head - Private sector Development Fayaz Hudah
• Procurement Specialist Gamini Karunaratne
• Programme Specialist Thushara Suraweera
• Manager Finance Percy Attanayaka
• Program Manager- Information Infrastructure Aruni Goonetilleke
• Program Manager- HRD Nalini Senasekera
• Internal Auditor Melvin Perera
• Senior Project Manager Kanchana Thudugala
• Senior Technologist Crishantha Nanayakkara
• Senior Systems Engineer Himira Ratnatilake

12


ICTA TEAMS & DEPARTMENTS

At ICTA, the employees are grouped in to different teams depending on the area of
specialization and the purpose they serve. The teams are as follows:

1. Technology Team 7. Legal Team
2. Re-Gov Team 8. HRD Team
3. Nenasala Team 9. Procurement Team
4. E-Society Team 10. Private Sector Team
5. Monitoring & Evaluation Team 11. Administration Team
6. Communications Team

Usually each team contains a Senior Programme Head, Programme Head, Project Officers and
Specialists.

SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE USED

Operating Systems

• Windows platform: XP, Vista, Windows 7
• Linux Platform: Ubuntu, Fedora

Application Software

• Microsoft Office Packages
• Content Management System
• Online Survey Tools
• LibreOffice
• OpenProj
• SAAS Software

Hardware:

• The company has its’ own servers (to host the intranet and other systems)
• The Company has its’ own LGN servers to provide e-services by government
organizations.
• ICTA’s employees have either a desktop computer or a laptop in order to carry out the
work they are involved with.

13


CHAPTER 2: TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE GAINED

This part of the project involved gaining a good understanding of an ICT Policy for Government
Organizations. My task was to study its capabilities from the point of view of a data
management solution in the e-Gov system. My task was to:

• Understand the e-government policy,
• How to adopt the e-government policy,
• Analyze the policy Compliance of Government Organizations.

E-GOVERNMENT POLICY ADOPTION

The ICT Policy articulates the minimum requirements expected of government organizations,
and government organizations could add on to this and create their own organizational ICT
policies and procedures, within this Policy framework. Thus, the Policy is mandatory for
providing a unified approach in implementing e-government services and achieving the
following:

• Improved efficiency and effectiveness of government organizations in Sri Lanka thereby
making each government organization’s budget go further.
• Ease and accessibility of government information and services for citizens, and other
government organizations.
• Promote good governance.
• Develop ICT competence among government employees.
• Manage ICT resources in sustainable manner.

Therefore ICT Policy and Procedures for the Government (e-Government Policy) was approved
by the Cabinet of Ministers on 2009-12-16 to be implemented by all government organizations
including Ministries, Government Departments, Provincial Councils, District Secretariats,
Divisional Secretariats and Local Government Authorities. The
Cabinet of Ministers also recommended the e-Government Policy
to be implemented by the Government Corporations and
Statutory Boards. A Presidential New Circular (No:
SP/5/1/ICTA/Re-Gov) was issued to all government organizations
to inform the need for e-Government Policy compliance. It
specially drew attention to achieve compliance for 40 critical
policy requirements. The implementation period is 3 phases
starting from June 2011. Amidst other responsibilities,
Reengineering Government Programme (Re-Gov) of ICTA carried
out a rigorous awareness campaign to educate the public sector
on the e-Government Policy and convince the government Leaders and CIOs of the importance
of implementation of e-Government Policy.

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STRUCTURE OF THE ICT POLICY UNIT

The ICT policy team of ICTA consists of 2 members as shown in Figure 3 below
below.

Director,
Mr. Wasantha Deshapriya
Re-
Re-engineering

Project Manager Mr. Sameera Jayawardana

Figure 3: Structure of the ICT Policy Unit

MAIN SOFTWARES USED IN THE ICT POLICY UNIT:

• Microsoft Office Packages
ft
• Online Survey Tools
• ICTA Forum

WORK EXPERIENCE

My work at ICTA could be classified in to 3 groups.

1. ICT Policy-related Work
⊕ Studied the company environment and ICT Policy Documents.
More details of the information I gathered in this study have been furnished in the e –
Government Policy Book
Book.
⊕ I was asked to prepare do a presentation about my understanding of the ICT Agency of
Sri Lanka in brief, ICT Policy and the work involved to be presented at a later date.
CT
⊕ Made Event Record sheet for meetings by the date, time, venue, t record about ICT
vent to
Policy events.
⊕ Made Translations for e-Gov Policy Documents

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⊕ Update and the Government Organizations Database.
⊕ Gathered information and made notes on FOSS.
⊕ Made a Policy Compliance Sheet.
⊕ Made Policy Samples and formats.

2. System Requirement Analysis- e Services
⊕ Designed the basic structure of the proposed solution and did a study on the
requirements mainly based on past documents by Government Organizations.
⊕ Drew work flows and Business process according to their suggestion.
⊕ The plan was documented.
3. Evaluation Reporting
⊕ Done Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis based on Feedback forms on Policy
Workshops.
⊕ Drafted a Situation Report and reviewed it.
⊕ Finally made a Evaluation Report.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES

My main responsibility in the ICT Policy program was to assist with the Policy Compliance
documentation of the commune sub-projects being designed and implemented at the ICTA
level at the Government Organizations. For this reason, this report will concentrate primarily
on documentation and my experiences and recommendations related to it.

In addition to working on documentation in the ICTA office, I also attended meetings and
travelled to some of Policy Workshops. At workshops and meetings, I generally attended to get
a better idea of the way the ICT Policy program as a whole, operated. Even when these were
not strictly related to the documentation work I was doing, they were still quite interesting and
helpful to my more general understanding of the program and its component parts.

16


CHAPTER 3: OBSERVATION AND COMMENTS

It seemed highly appropriate for me to be working on a ICTAs’project where the main goal was
Policy Adoption because my capacity to continue to do National development work in the
future was definitely raised.

Nevertheless this internship period was surely a good way for me to understand the nature of
working life, behaviour and attitudes of people, etc. However, I would suggest that it would
benefit the interns more if it was possible for ICTA to involve them in the ongoing Re-
enginerring and e-Government Policy in order for them to get a better exposure to the policy
activities.

However, this was certainly a good opportunity for me to experience the issues which we might
face during work life, identifying how the help of Information and Communication Technology
could be integrated in coming up with solutions for these kind of problems.

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CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION

This internship completion report brings together as a whole, the work performed by myself at

the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka, during my 6 month

internship period which spans from the 14th of March 2011 till the 31st of August 2011. This also

carries information about the company, how the company came in to existence, the ‘e-Sri

Lanka Roadmap’ and other related information which I managed to collect during my time

there.

This was surely a good opportunity for me to get an insight as to how office life carries on.

REFERENCE

⊕ www.icta.lk

⊕ E- Government Policy Book
⊕ Catalyst Magazine
⊕ http://www.icta.lk/index.php/en/e-governement-policy

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APPENDICES

• Appendix A: Progress Reports

o Progress reports from March to July have been attached. Progress reports for August

will be handed over at the end of the internship.

19

ICTA -e -GOV-policy Review Report

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