• Formally incorporated with Hans Wijayasuriya as Chairman and Board appointed
• Entity to be funded through national budget, ADB, World Bank support
• Consultancy firm to design new organisational structure before hiring begins
• ICTA liquidation process to proceed in parallel as GovTech assumes its role

GovTech Ltd., the successor to the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), is expected to become fully operational within 3–6 months, the Ministry of Digital Economy reveals.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Ministry of Digital Economy Acting Secretary Waruna Sri Dhanapala revealed that the Government had formally incorporated GovTech as a legal entity and had already appointed Hans Wijayasuriya as its Chairman, along with the Board of Directors. 

He further stated that the Budget for the upcoming year had allocated funds for the operation of GovTech, which would also receive financial support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank.

However, Dhanapala admitted that the required workforce was yet to be hired, while they also had to determine an appropriate organisational structure for the entity.

“We have commenced the process to hire a consultancy firm to recommend an appropriate organisational structure. With that, we can sort out the rest,” he said. 

Accordingly, he stated that until these measures were implemented and GovTech became fully operational, they would not be able to wind up the ICTA.

However, he stated that GovTech could be made fully operational within 3–6 months.

Commenting on the fate of the ICTA, the Acting Secretary stated that a Cabinet decision had been made to wind up the organisation, adding that the Treasury had been instructed to commence the liquidation process accordingly. 

However, it is essential to ensure that the new institution, GovTech, is established in parallel with this liquidation.

“The ICTA will not be allocated much funds under next year’s Budget because we will be replacing it with GovTech. We need it to either submit its projects within this year or hand them over to GovTech,” he said. 

Commenting on the timeline for the liquidation of the ICTA, Dhanapala stated: “We have informed the Treasury to commence the liquidation process. Once the liquidation process begins, the liquidators will be responsible for determining the duration required to complete the process.”