e – NIC Project

The Department for Registration of Persons is the only institution vested with the authority to establish a National Persons Registry as an electronic data system and issue National Identity Cards. The Department for Registration of Persons has been established under the Registration of Persons Act no 32 of 1968 and Regulations framed for the purpose in 1971 and amendments made to these legal authorities.
This project is formulated to facilitate the general public an efficient and quality service through an identity card issued an e – NIC with modern technological security features.
Under this project it is intended to establish a national persons registry as a database with bio data of persons of 15 years or above, fingerprints as biometrics and a photograph taken according to ICAO standards and issue an e-NIC during a specific time period for the persons completing the eligible age, in order to identify persons for the purpose of facilitating the general public to obtain their day to day services and facilitating national security and accelerated economic development of the country.

Need for issuing an e-NIC

• To establish identity of Sri Lankan citizens using modern technology.
• To establish an information exchange system to provide services of public and other institutions easily and quickly.
• To facilitate national security required for the implementation of development programs efficiently, transparently and effectively.

Objectives of the Project

• To collect personal data of persons as a family unit and establish a national persons registry and a central database with bio data of all persons of 15 years or above, their biometrics and photographs obtained according to ICAO standards.
• To issue an e-NIC to all Sri Lankan citizens of 15 years or above for the purpose of correctly establishing the identity of persons.
• To establish a policy of exchanging legal data in the central data storage.
• To provide facilities required for national security and economic development.

Benefits for the public through e- NIC

• You can establish your identity easily

With this identity card the identity of the persons is accurately established in obtaining services required by a person while securing human, social, economic, political and legal rights of citizens of this country.

• It help gain services offered by government institutions quickly and easily

The identity can be accurately established when casting the vote, at banks, in obtaining licenses, passports, local and foreign employment, ETF benefits and in the matters of insurance, land and property, pension etc and when linked with the legal data exchange system, services can be obtained even without the identity card and it will be immense benefits to the citizen.

• The e-NIC ensures your security

This e-NIC can carefully control anti-social activities like corruption, frauds, irregularities etc carried out by fraudulently establishing the identity and therefore there is no room for anybody to appear in your name or gain services in your name. This allows genuine persons to maintain quality services without any interruption and it assures the security of the citizens even without the identity cards at natural calamities.

• When information of your family has to be confirmed, the identity card will be of assistance.

The national persons registry and the electronic central database store information of all eligible Sri Lankan citizens and their relations and therefore information of family members can be confidently be confirmed for any recognized institution at any given time.

• The e-NIC can support in the process of building a prosperous nation

As information could be exchanged through the national personal database with the institutions related to national security and economic development, national security is secured, acceleration of economic development is facilitated and with this it is possible to build a prosperous nation.
The Department attempted at several occasions to resolve the issues and weaknesses of the old system of issuing identity cards and of interim arrangements of issuing identity cards in two languages. Resolving the issues and overcoming the weaknesses of the above two systems the e-NIC is issued as an identity card which can identify the exact person and credibly establish the identity.

Background of the project from 17.08.2011 to 07.10.2015

• Project period – 3 years
• Estimate of the project – Rs 14.5 b
• Implementation of the project – Under the guidance of the Presidential Operational Committee. The members are as follows.
• Secretary to the President – Co-chairman
• Secretary/ Defense & Urban Develop – Co- chairman
• Secretary/ Home Affairs
• Deputy Secretary to the Treasury
• Commissioner General – Department for Registration of Persons
• Inspector General for Police
• Head – National Intelligence bureau
• Director /ICTA
• Presidential Advisor

Background after 07.10.2015

• Project period – 2 years
• Estimate of the project – Rs 8.0 b
• Implementation of the project – Under the guidance of the Project Steering committee. The members are as follows.
• Secretary of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development and Cultural Affairs- Chairman
• Representative of the Secretary to the Prime Minister
• Representative of the Secretary / Defense
• Secretary to the Treasury or his representative
• Commissioner General – Department for Registrations of Persons
• Commissioner General – Immigration and Emigration
• Inspector General in Police or a S/DIG
• Director / ICTA
• A senior lecturer of the School of Computing, University of Colombo

Physical progress of the e-NIC project from the beginning to 31.10.2015

• Communication material required for data capturing (information, education, communication material) prepared and distributed to Divisional Secretariats.
• Programs to educate the public on data and biometric capturing have been conducted
• Programs to educate stakeholders on data capturing have been conducted
• Pilot program as an initial program on manual data capturing of citizens’ data have been conducted with their consent
• A pilot program for data capturing was conducted in 27 Divisional Secretariats in the Galle, Matara, and Hambantota Districts in September 2014 with the approval of the Presidential Steering Committee.
• About 250,000 completed applications have been received in the departmental units at Divisional secretariats
• Action has been taken to make amendments and regulations required for the National Persons Registry and the e-NIC in the Registration of Persons Act No 32 of 1968.

Restructuring of Departmental units at the Divisional Secretariats / Provisional Offices and the Head Office, providing of infrastructure facilities, recruitment of staff and training required for the issuances of e-NIC have been carried out.