Neville Lahiru
The Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) revelations have been making regular headlines in the past few months. For instance, one report revealed that People’s Bank losses have been primarily driven by 10 firms where these companies had defaulted on loans borrowed between 2017 – 2021. A more recent startling COPE revelation points to another state enterprise’s misgivings, the SPC and the MSD.
The State Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Sri Lanka, better known as SPC, has fallen into troubling times lately. As one of the severe effects of the current economic crisis, the SPC has been forced to reduce the import of medicine, including several essential drugs. A few weeks ago, the Prime Minister stated that “payments have not been made for four months to suppliers of medicine, medical equipment, and food for patients.” According to the Prime Minister, because of this foreign pharmaceutical companies are taking measures to blacklist Sri Lanka’s government-owned pharmaceutical corporation. However, it appears that this may not be the only worry for the institution.
On May 31, the SPC and the Medical Supplies Division (MSD) of the Ministry of Health were summoned before COPE in an inquiry into the institutions’ performance. During the hearing, the officials revealed that it had to pay a whopping LKR 644 million for an inventory management software that took seven years to build and implement (2008 – 2015). To put it in perspective, 644 million is just a little under 50 million short of hSenid’s IPO offering in December.
The parliament is asking software engineers for help
Reportedly contracted by EWIS, SPC and MSD also stated that it pays LKR 5 million monthly as maintenance even though the software doesn’t work as intended. Further, officials mention that it would cost an estimated LKR 7 billion to upgrade the existing system to one that fits the needs of the SPC and MSD.
The issues around the existing system were raised when COPE pointed to SPC’s lack of an updated inventory database of medicine requirements. The officials stated that the institution currently has problems where only some entries can be entered into the system, following up with the cost details around the problematic software.
At the same hearing, COPE Chair Dr. Charith Herath also made an open request from the tech community to help build software that can undertake “inventory management, procurement management, and need assessment.”
Nevertheless, questions still remain as to what the estimated LKR 7 billion system upgrade actually comes down to. More importantly, there are questions on why the makers of one Sri Lanka’s smart classroom solutions took seven years and cost LKR 644 million to build a software for SPC/MSD when the likes of Watchdog built a system to address the current medical shortage problems in a matter of months.
Responding to a ReadMe inquiry, EWIS COO Nirmal Pieris states that the information shared during the COPE hearing is false and that the company is currently in the process of officially responding to COPE. Following this, Pieris further mentions that EWIS “will issue a press release with all documents to prove the actual value of the Project and that the system is being used.”
Following the reporting of the above, EWIS has since issued a statement in response to the allegations. Full story here.
Update [02/06/2022]: Article updated with comment from EWIS management
Update [03/06/2022]: Earlier version of the article stated that the SPC paid for the software. It has been corrected as the Medical Supplies Division of the Ministry of Health.
At the COPE Committee meeting held on 31st May 2022, Certain Details were revealed regarding Medical Supplies Division system developed by EWIS. The company will issue a press release with the true and correct facts shortly.
Message published by EWIS Management.
This system is own by MSD not SPC wrong and misleading reporting
We’ve updated the article
This article is inaccurate. The software was purchased and installed by the Medical Supplies Division (MSD) of the Ministry of Health and NOT by the SPC. Please correct the article content.
Hi,
The article has been updated. Thanks.
Someone is playing up. The numbers don’t lie, and why would E-wis give a system for free? Makes no sense. And given the track record of E-wis with the Rajapaksa’s their gov deals are shady.
The article is entirely misleading. The software cost only 83 million.
Total include hardware, network, ups, generator etc..etc..
Entire cost is 225mn.. not 600mn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7P1PdJ0IfQ
Check the published date, and read the article again. Perhaps, beyond just the headline this time.