Investigations by the Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) into the visa issue linked to VFS Global have identified that the prime contractor for visa issuance was not the said firm but GBS Technology Services and IVS Global FZCO, CoPF Chairman Harsha de Silva said.
Presenting the CoPF probe report in Parliament today, MP Harsha de Silva explained that VF Worldwide Holdings, which is commonly known as VFS, was part of GBS Technology Services and IVS Global FZCO.
He said investigations have revealed that the prime contractor is not VFS Global as claimed but GBS Technology Services and IVS Global FZCO, but all the companies have signed an agreement to carry out visa issuance.
MP de Silva said the CoPF report has found that VFS Global had been picked without calling for official bids and had resulted in the Department of Immigration and Emigration losing out on receiving competitive rates for visa issuance.
“If competitive bids were called for then the government could have obtained the services for a fee less than US$ 25,” he said.
Stating that local firm Mobitel had also in the past offered to provide some service for US$1, MP de Silva said however, no specifications had been issued on the criteria for the visa issuance service amidst which VFS Global had been selected.
He said the CoPF is of the view that if specification documents had been available then, not only Mobitel but other overseas firms would also have had an opportunity to engage in competitive bidding for the visa issuance service in Sri Lanka.
The CoPF Chairman said an issue has arisen as to why the selection of firms had been conducted without a specification document.
Commenting on the incident of data breach related to VFS Global, which was brought to light by an international YouTube travel vlogger, MP Harsha de Silva said investigations are ongoing into the matter.
He said Immigration Officials had informed CoPF that a set of dummy data had been accidentally sent to the international YouTube travel vlogger.
The CoPF Chairman emphasized that data protection was essential when providing such services and is important for national security.
MP Harsha de Silva added that the CoPF investigations have also found that the agreement on the visa issuance process does not mention an investment of US$ 200 million or Rs. 200 million as claimed by the authorities, confirming that no such investment has been made as yet.
The Committee on Public Finance launched a probe after the newly introduced visa issuance system by global visa processing service, VFS Global and its charges were brought to the limelight after a local passenger had raised concerns over the process, with the video of the incident being widely circulated on social media.
In the video, an agitated Sri Lankan national claimed that Indian companies who had taken over visa processing at the Bandaranaike International Airport were causing delays and levying extra processing fees.
Responding to the incident and allegations, the Indian High Commission refuted reports of Indian companies taking over visa issuance at the Katunayake Airport, stating, “Any reference to India in this context is unwarranted.”
Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles, under whose purview the visa process falls, also acknowledged in Parliament at the time that the decision to grant the process to global visa processing service, VFS Global was taken following Cabinet approval and that it was not processed through Parliament. (Newswire)
