Sri Lankan Minister Vijitha Herath. | Picture credit score: PICHUMANI Ok.
Sri Lanka’s new authorities, led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has ordered a forensic audit of the visa outsourcing contract with Indian corporations together with a Dubai-based firm allegedly concerned in a scandal over the visa-on-arrival system vacationer.
A forensic audit has been ordered of Indian corporations GBS Know-how and IVS World FZCO, in addition to VFS World, which in April was awarded a multi-million greenback contract as a expertise associate to course of foreigners’ visa purposes, mentioned Vijitha Herath, Minister of Public Safety.
“We now have initiated a right away forensic audit to research the irregularities,” Herath mentioned.
This comes after the Supreme Court docket on Tuesday (September 27, 2024) ordered the remand of the Comptroller of Immigration and Emigration, Harsha Ilukpitiya, for contempt of court docket for failing to implement a excessive court docket order on the disputed system in course on the query of arrival. Digital vacationer visas for the nation.
Herath mentioned airport immigration from Thursday evening (September 26, 2024) onwards reverted to utilizing the earlier system that existed earlier than mid-April.
“The visa system offered by VFS World has prompted important hardship for a lot of,” Herath added.
The court docket was listening to a basic rights petition filed by opposition politicians who termed the outsourced visa operation a rip-off and sought its suspension.
Below the outsourcing settlement, any foreigner getting into Sri Lanka was required to pay US$25 to have their software processed, together with residents of nations that had visa-free journey agreements with Sri Lanka.
In July, the court docket ordered the immigration controller to cease the outsourced operation and return to the outdated system.
Revealed – September 27, 2024 01:34 pm IST