NPP inquiry report to be presented in Parliament soon
The inquiry report on Sri Lanka’s controversial National Payment Platform (NPP) developed by the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) is to be presented in Parliament soon and appropriate action will follow based on the findings of the investigation, National Policies and Economic Affairs Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva told the Business Times.
ICTA has also submitted a separate report to the Central Bank (CB) and it is being examined by relevant top officials to make their recommendations on the resumption of NPP which is now suspended, he disclosed.
A round table meeting of all stakeholders including the top officials of Central Bank, commercial banks, financial institutions, Lanka Clear (Pvt) Ltd, IT experts and university professors will be held to decide on implementation procedure and further development of NPP in a transparent manner, he added.
This follows allegations against ICTA, that it took arbitrary action in handing over its operations to private companies without CB regulation.
An in-depth investigation into the whole process of the NPP development was carried out on the directions of Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva and its report was submitted on August 28.
ICTA CEO Muhunthan Canagey resigned from his post following allegations against the agency that it took arbitrary action in handing over its operations to private companies without CB regulation.
Dr. De Silva emphasised that the CB has not given power to ICTA with regard to the digitalisation of country’s payment operations.
“No private company has been given approval to operate the NPP, and no legal agreement has been signed so far with regard to this,” he pointed out.
According to Cabinet approval given to implement the NPP, ICTA has been directed to implement this platform with the CB facilitating its implementation.
ICTA has very limited powers under the Information and Communication Technology Act, No. 27 of 2003 to implement projects and give inputs to policy formulation.
According to the Payments and Settlements Act, the CB shall be the authority responsible for the preparation of a plan for a national payment system and therefore ICTA cannot take arbitrary actions without the knowledge of the country’s monetary regulator, official sources said.
NPP has been designed to facilitate persons, businesses and government to make peer-to-peer payments, including fund transfers and online payments for goods and services, via Internet using computers or mobile phones.
Therefore the CB has key responsibility in looking into the viability of resuming the NPP, Dr. de Silva said adding that ICTA should divulge details on system development, operation manuals, system security, compliance with system standards and the external system audit framework.