The Ministry of Digital Economy has announced that an amendment bill introducing the necessary changes to enable the full implementation of the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) No.9 of 2022 will be submitted to Parliament for its third reading on Tuesday (21).
Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Ministry of Digital Economy Acting Secretary Waruna Sri Dhanapala stated that the full implementation of the PDPA required certain amendments to be introduced.
“The bill will be read out in Parliament for the third time on 21 October. When it was read for the second time, certain amendments were proposed. It took us some time to get these amendments cleared by the Attorney General’s Department,” he stated.
Dhanapala noted that under the original act, a major concern had been the restrictions imposed on certain businesses and Government institutions regarding the outsourcing of services to foreign parties.
Accordingly, he explained that this restriction had now been reworded to allow such cross-border arrangements, provided that the necessary certified data protection controls were in place.
Dhanapala revealed that the original implementation date had previously been postponed through a gazette notification, noting that it was now necessary to further extend the implementation period by an additional six months.
He explained that this six-month extension would take effect from the date of enactment of the amendment bill.
The Acting Secretary further revealed that certain practical issues had delayed the operationalisation of the Data Protection Authority. He added that steps would be taken in the coming days to gazette the scheme of recruitment for its officers, beginning with the appointment of the director general.
Dhanapala further noted that in the absence of an approved recruitment scheme, the functions of the authority had thus far been managed by an Acting Director General.
Accordingly, he stated that priority would be given to finalising this process, adding that once a permanent director general was appointed to the authority, the necessary steps could be taken to ensure the full implementation of the act within six months.
– By Shenal Fernando