The national security is at risk as the Metropolitan , the company which prints the driving licenses for Department of Motor Traffic, has not returned the database which was obtained while issuing the driving licenses.
The security forces have pointed out that the data being in the hands of a third party can create issues over their safety.
If a certain group were able to forcefully extract those data the details of all the individuals who had obtained a driving license can be exposed to one or more external parties, reports say.
Furthermore, Motor Traffic Commissioner's Office sources report that due to the current situation there is no opportunity to inquire if there had been any irregularities when printing the driving licenses.
Metropolitan has reportedly obtained the tender according to build operator transfer method and had been providing the service of printing driving license since 2007. Accordingly, they are obliged to provide the personal data to Motor Traffic Commissioner's Office.
Meanwhile, despite the issue of noncompliance the contract has been extended to another 6 months.The extension has been done as the tender process to select a new service provider had been temporarily suspended and cancelled after one and half months.
However, the Minister of Transport has advised to initiate a new tender.
Furthermore, the particular tender was processed under the supervision of Information and Communication Technology Commissioner of Motor Traffic Department , Thushara Suraweera, who had been one of the government officials suspected of being involved in most number of corruptions.
Metro's substandard card
It is reported that the driving licenses printed by Metropolitan is substandard with a tendency to easily break from the middle.
According to sources at Motor Traffic Commissioner's Office the number of complaints received regarding the broken driving license had been increasing by the day.
Furthermore, suspicions have been raised if the data is properly stored and saved in the chip inside the driving license.
According to the tender, Metropolitan is obliged to provide machines which can read the chip to Motor Traffic Department and Sri Lanka Police , however the company has not provided such equipment.
In addition, the CEO of Metropolitan Ivor Maharoof has been accused of giving bribes in order to secure tenders.
As the Metropolitan was accused of defrauding money from the educational programmes launched for school children, the President cancelled the tender given to them to provide tablet computers to school children.
However, disregarding the Presindet's objection the company has been able to obtain Cabinet approval to re-obtain the tender.
(Mirror)