#DataScam : What happened to Terabytes of data from NMRA?

by Amani Nilar 26-10-2022 | 6:23 PM

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health is preparing to establish a database by spending almost a billion rupees, however no progress has been made with regard to the infamour #DataScam.

The approval of the National Medicnes Regulatory Authority is essential for every medicine and medical device imported to Sri Lanka.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, most of these activities take place online, and an advertisement published by the NMRA on October 15th, 2020 confirmed this.

The functions of the NMRA were carried out online using the Lanka Government Cloud for uploading important data related to medicinesand medical devices.

However, the data belonging to the NMRA which was available on the Lanka Government Cloud suddenly went missing, and later it was revealed that it was deliberate deletion.

A complaint on data going missing from the NMRA Cloud was filed with the CID on July 23rd, 2021.

A software engineer attached to the private company that managed the NMRA system was accused of deleting the data.

However, the database did not even have the minimum security measure or a backup facility.

The issue went to the Courts on 6th October 2021 where the gravity of the missing data was disclosed.

Senior Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Dileepa Peiris revealed at the Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court that medicine racketeer made undue advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic that was spreading across Sri Lanka at the time.

In court it was revealed that the systems operator from the private company that managed the NMRA cloud had deleted data for a period of seven long hours.

Senior Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Dileepa Peiris emphasized that all those involved in this crime should be thoroughly investigated and brought to justice as they are part of the organized criminal syndicate.

It was also revealed in court that the deletion of highly sensitive data was not a mistake, but a deliberate act.

On October 12th 2021, a committee which investigated the infamous Data Scam submitted its interim report to the then-state minister.

This interim report with serious recommendations, revealed that fraud and corruption have continued throughout a long period of time.

Although both the State and the private company which managed the database have made various statements from time to time about this issue, no further steps were taken with regard to the data scam.

Even the NMRA personnel have changed with the Government change.

There is a new team of NMRA personnel now.

However, it was public funds which was spent on this.

The deletion of data from the Government cloud, which was a highly sensitive data system, cannot be taken as a minor incident.

What happened to the NMRA data scam?

What actions have been taken against those responsible?

Are these also not economic crimes?