The Hon. (Dr.) Harini Amarasuriya - Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education

¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, with the objective of facilitating education by providing systemized smart classrooms to the school system, approval was granted under Cabinet decision No. AMP/24/0385/601/027 dated 04 March 2024, to provide smart boards and other equipment to 1,000 schools using funds of the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.

¶ 02 Further, Cabinet Memorandum No. AMP/24/0978/630/009 dated 14 May 2024 proposed implementing this project in parallel with the school digitization project proposed by the Government of China. Under the Chinese project, a centralized control room and a studio are to be built and an additional 500 smart boards provided. By integrating the two projects, the target is to network smart classrooms in 1,500 schools.

¶ 03 To enable integration, it was decided that the smart boards to be procured by the Government of Sri Lanka must match the specifications of the smart boards to be provided by the Chinese Government.

¶ 04 Accordingly, procurement of 1,000 smart boards by the Government of Sri Lanka commenced in July 2024. However, at the time procurement began, the Chinese project remained at discussion stage, and no official agreement had been reached on specifications of the boards to be provided by China.

¶ 05 Nevertheless, using unclear, unofficially sourced specifications not confirmed by the Chinese Government, prices were obtained from a single supplier without an open tender, and procurement was carried out via the Sri Lanka State Trading (General) Corporation.

¶ 06 The total amount spent by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission for this purpose is Rs. 1.7 billion. In addition, approximately Rs. 430 million has been committed to the State Trading (General) Corporation as service and installation charges. Compared with the standard process for high-value procurements, this purchase appears to have been carried out with unusual haste: prices were called on 05 July 2024, opened on 15 July 2024, the Technical Evaluation Committee report completed on 16 July 2024, considered by the Cabinet Appointed Standing Procurement Committee on 17 and 18 July 2024, recommended the same day, submitted to Cabinet on 23 July 2024, approval granted on 30 July 2024, and the purchase order issued to the supplier on 05 August 2024—an overall timeframe of about one month.

¶ 07 Payment of the CIF value of USD 3,135,392.50 for 1,000 smart boards was made via a letter of credit to Intelligent Express Limited, Hong Kong, indicated as a representative of Huawei. Although Huawei was cited in the Cabinet Memorandum as the manufacturer to supply smart boards under the Chinese aid project, the Chinese Government has not, to date, confirmed the selection of any such supplier for this project.

¶ 08 The ordered smart boards and other equipment were received by the Ministry of Education around October 2024 and are currently stored at the Pattalagedara Teachers’ Training College. While the Government of Sri Lanka’s procurement is complete, the Chinese aid component remains unimplemented and no final agreement has been reached.

¶ 09 Because networking facilities and the centralized system to be provided by China are not finalized, these smart boards cannot be used for the intended purpose. The Chinese aid project is still at discussion stage and may take until the end of this year. No official decision on the supplier has yet been communicated.

¶ 10 If we distribute these 1,000 boards and other equipment to schools now, principals would require clear operational guidance, which cannot be provided without the Chinese project being operational. At present, without networking, the boards could only be used as stand-alone classroom devices, failing to achieve the project’s objectives, and representing suboptimal utilization of the Rs. 1.7 billion spent.

¶ 11 A formal investigation has commenced into whether financial or procedural irregularities occurred. Discussions are also ongoing with the Chinese Government to obtain the proposed facilities as soon as possible.

¶ 12 Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the time allotted.