{"id":152684,"date":"2025-10-24T03:01:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T10:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=152684"},"modified":"2025-10-24T03:01:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T10:01:34","slug":"the-visa-scam-in-sri-lanka-part-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/10\/24\/the-visa-scam-in-sri-lanka-part-6\/","title":{"rendered":"THE\u00a0\u00a0 VISA SCAM\u00a0 IN SRI LANKA Part 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In July 2024 the Parliamentary Committee on Public Finance (COPF)\u00a0\u00a0 was asked to\u00a0 look into the GBS-IVS-VFS\u00a0 matter . COPF\u00a0 conducted a formal, detailed\u00a0 inquiry into\u00a0 the appointment of the\u00a0 VSF Global Consortium as the authorized representatives for online visa applications to Sri Lanka COPF issued a damning 640-page report titled Outsourcing Online Visa and Passport Application Services between the Consortium and the Department of Immigration and\u00a0 migration of Sri Lanka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

on July 12  2024. see<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.parliament.lk\/uploads\/comreports\/1720771221058053.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COPF  found many abuses in the handling of this offer.   To start with, the contract was awarded without a competitive bidding process and without  specifications, preventing the Department  from securing the best  offer. COPF  observed   that the  visa fees charged by  other countries were    much lower. Further, an exclusive contract with VFS Global for  a  16-year duration  could  lead to   Vendor Lock-In as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COPF  pointed out that there were serious lapses in obtaining Parliament   approval for VFS. The Consortium Outsourcing Agreement grants exclusive rights to the Consortium , but this exclusivity was not mentioned in the Cabinet Memorandum  of September 8, 2023. This was a serious misrepresentation, said COPF.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cabinet had been told that they would get 200 million US dollars to upgrade our system. But there is no such mention in the Agreement.  The documents  sent to  Attorney General  for approval did not include the annexures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Cabinet Memorandum dated September 8, 2023, and the Consortium’s evaluation report both stated that IVS-GBS Global Services operates in 145 countries. However, during COPF proceedings,   it emerged that  IVS-GBS currently serves only three governments ,India, Malaysia, and Greece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COPF  found many defects in the   text of the  agreement as well. Here are two.  Data protection was not satisfactory. The measures taken to safeguard sensitive information from potential breaches and  to protect  accessibility to  data  were  weak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Agreement   lacked a Clause establishing the order of precedence  in the case of  conflicting provisions.  Which is the superseding clause.  Is it  Clause 7.3 in the Consortium Outsourcing Agreement or  Clause 1.2.2 of Annexure 2   asked COPF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intelligentsia and the media also commented  at length  on  the VFS agreement.  Why get into a 16-year contract when the world of IT and AI is  changing fast. There are already unmanned immigration counters in many airports. Most documents and applications are now machine processed. It is predicted that most back-office work will become redundant in the near future,  said  Sirimewan Dharmaratne<\/strong>. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three MPs who petitioned the Supreme Court against the VFS venture, held a press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simple practice of vetting the unsolicited proposal  was  not done , they said . We have clearly told the Supreme Court there was no proper due diligence on these companies. Also, the authorities have not revealed important   information such as the shareholding of each company in this joint venture .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The intelligentsia  also commented. The  presentations made  to Parliament  are not known to the public. They should be made public along with VFS\u2019s unsolicited proposal. Parliament has a right to ask for them for review and debate, and the Speaker has the obligation to get them tabled in Parliament by the Minister, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 There was no Technical Committee  or Cabinet Appointed Negotiation Committee    for  the VFS deal, though a   Negotiation Committee  had been   appointed for the Mobitel proposal of November 2020 .   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 An  Evaluation Committee  was appointed but it  did not have the  technical  skills needed to  evaluate VFS\u2019s  offer.  Of the five members, one  represented  the  Treasury,  one was  from Ministry of Public Administration and the remaining three were from the Ministry ,including  its Chief Financial Officer   and the   Commissioner  of Immigration,  Harsha Illukpitiya. Critics noted that   the VFS agreement  had been finalized before  the  Evaluation Committee had    submitted its report.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics laughed at one of the functions  to be carried out by the  VFS combine. The Cabinet was  given a laundry list of the work that VFS would do. One of them really stands out, tourism promotion, said Rajan Philips.   Cabinet was told that  VFS Global  has the ability to promote the tourism industry of Sri Lanka because it has an experienced base in  151 countries.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Philips hooted at this. Did the government  obtain confirmation from any of the 151 countries  about  the  tourism promoting abilities of VFS Global? Why should a visa processing agency be tasked with promoting tourism. And since when did promoting tourism become a mandate for the Controller General of Immigration  he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the item went through.  Responsibility for  promoting inbound tourism to Sri Lanka has now been awarded to  the VFS Global  consortium on an exclusive basis, said  Rohan Pethiyagoda.  Controller of Immigration with no authority from Cabinet, with no consultation with the tourism industry, and possibly without the consent of Tourism Minister ,  has  signed away the rights to tourism promotion in Sri Lanka for the next 16 years to GBS-IVS-VFS, which has no known capacity in this highly specialized field. The giant tourism operator Kuoni is a co-owner of VFS , creating  an immediate conflict-of-interest, Pethiyagoda said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Immigration  Department     distanced itself  from  Mobitel once VFS came on the scene. Mobitel  said  it received minimal feedback from Immigration when it submitted proposals in August 2023 .   Mobitel   also found it difficult to obtain clear system requirements  from  them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Supreme Court order  Mobitel wrote to the Controller General of Immigration  saying it could restore the ETA front-end system within 24 hours  if the  Immigration Department  activates several backend links that would allow it to go online. Immigration Department  only had to provide connectivity, nothing more. Immigration Department  did not  oblige. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobitel said  that they had sent their technicians to the Department of Immigration after the Court order ,  but the technicians were given access only to the Front End of the system not to the Back End.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Informatics Ltd  had developed new links for the VFS system. Mobitel asked  Immigration Department to instruct Informatics  to  return to  the  back end services, the  network configuration, and other facilities that were active    as of April 16 .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Immigration  Department did not  respond to any of this.  Controller of Immigration     ignored the  Supreme Court Order.  Immigration officials  said they had received no instructions from Controller of Immigration ,Illukpitiya to enforce the Court\u2019s directive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President of the Sri Lanka Immigration and Emigration Officers\u2019 Association said that Immigration  had switched to the new  VFS e-visa system within five hours . They  should be able to do the same in reverse.   Informatics  had   also confirmed   that  the switch  could  be done in 48 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics  rejected  the  excuses offered by the Ministry for rejecting  Mobitel  and replacing it with VFS.   Ministry said  that the change from ETA to VFS processing was prompted by complaints from tourists about Mobitel ETA, and the need for addressing long-standing issues.  According to the Minister, such complaints were even directed to President Ranil Wickremesinghe. But this is not the assessment of anyone in the in the tourism business, nor has this been the experience of travelers in general including this writer, said Rajan Philips.Quite a number of people owning private tourism businesses have also spoken out in favor of the old system..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics   wanted Mobitel back.  Sri Lankan software companies are outstanding by  world standards. It is their software that drives the stock exchanges of London, Italy and South Africa,   they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Mobitel  ETA   had run  smoothly from 2012 without  major breakdowns, negative publicity, data breaches or any  other complaints.  It seems to have managed well up to 16th April , including  the peak  arrivals of the winter months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The updated system prepared in August 2023 addressed all of the Immigration Department requirements.  Features like risk profiling, passenger name records, and advance passenger information, present in Mobitel\u2019s   updated proposal, were  absent from the Consortium’s proposal., they added.   Further, Mobitel  had offered to provide the updated  ETA platform  for USD 1 per application, in stark contrast to the   USD 25.77   charged  by VFS, said critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motives for the VFS change were speculated on. This is a deliberate attempt to sabotage tourism,  said the Tourist industry. Tourism had come out of a lean phase and was looking forward to a successful winter run. They were also expecting  good bookings for the Esala season in Kandy. VFS knocked out the popular 30 day visa, and also harassed the tourists in many ways. The industry feared cancellations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did the government want to hurriedly change a scheme that was working perfectly and at such low cost, asked  critics.  The  answer  is because  VFS wanted to make money  using our Tourist Industry and  found willing accomplices  at Immigration itself.  The  relevant  Ministry got the offer accepted  by Cabinet and Parliament  .Immigration  had excuses ready each time the VFS service was found wanting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incentives would have been offered  by VFS on a continuous   basis , to be  paid as long as VFS stayed in business. That is  why the Ministry  authorities felt it could ignore a Supreme Court  order and do so publicly.   Bribery and corruption are usually conducted secretly and on a one-off basis. Going public like this is most unusual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Supreme Court order was announced the Ministry authorities  immediately called a press conference , which  was  aired on the television news channels and announced than VFS  had come to stay. It was not possible to comply with the Supreme Court order, because there were technical obstacles . Attorney General would tell this to the Court. They did not explain why  Attorney general did  not  say this at the initial hearing itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The media focused  mainly on the  impact of the VFS activity. But critics  swooped in on the   corruption aspect. Corruption charges have been levelled at the Public Security Minister. He was  the only government Minister publicly standing by the agreement, said  one  critic.[1]<\/a>   The politicians and officials involved should be held accountable, said Champika Ranawaka. [2]<\/a>  Auditor General\u2019s report on this matter should be handed over to the CID and the Bribery Commission, said Rohan Pethiyagoda.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harsha de Silva,  Chairman, COPF   said that Auditor General\u2019s report  should be forwarded to the US Department of Justice, requesting an FCPA investigation because VFS is partly owned by Blackstone, a New York based financial giant. VFS therefore  comes under the  scrutiny of US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. .The FCPA requires companies whose securities are listed in the USA to meet stringent accounting and anti-bribery provisions [4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GBS-IVS-VFS   visa project  has been described  as  a scam  three or four times bigger than the Bond Scam<\/a>,. Unlike most corrupt activity, which are one off and secretive,  this one involves an ongoing public service. This service, which all over the world is tightly controlled by the  government   for  security reasons, was breezily plucked out of the hands  of the local provider and given, under questionable conditions, to an outside party who were going to make money out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COPF recommended  a comprehensive forensic audit by the Auditor General’s Office after which COPF recommended that  this  deal to be abrogated or revised.  COPF was informed in September  2024 that that the Auditor General had already initiated such an audit. The Government has initiated an immediate forensic audit into the irregularities associated with the VFS Global deal,  said Minister for Public security, Vijitha Herath .( concluded)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REFERENCES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Hakeem threatens to bring contempt of court charges against govt officials ignoring SC order on VFS-Visa scam<\/a><\/blockquote>