EWIS Sri Lanka, the company handling the software of the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) has issued a clarification on the recent allegations raised on the payment of Rs. 644 million by the state institution.
The SPC had informed the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) that it has made the payment for software that does not accommodate its requirements.
Stating that the payment had been made for an inventory management software that was created from 2008 and had only been implemented in 2015, the SPC said payment of Rs. 5 million is made monthly as maintenance.
Responding to the allegations, EWIS Sri Lanka said it denies the allegations made by the state-owned medicine buyer.
Speaking to the media today, the Chairman of EWIS Sri Lanka Sanjeewa Wickramanayaka revealed only Rs. 83 million was spent on the Software made for the Medicine Supply Division and the cost for the total project was Rs. 223 million.
“45,000 purchasing orders have been placed through this system since 2015, while 950 purchase orders were placed from January 2020 to date,” he said.
Wickramanayaka questioned how the SPC placed orders through this system if it did not function as claimed by the state institution.
“Some Rs. 4.9 million was due after the warranty was over. The warranty was over on October 23, 2020. From November they paid us 4.9 million, not from 2015,” the EWIS Sri Lanka Chairman clarified.
Sanjeewa Wickramanayaka further said that from 2015 to 2017, for two years, the system was maintained without any other payments, and as per the contract, from 2017 to 2020 the warranty period of three years was given.
He added that the 4.9 million maintenance cost of 83 hospitals per month was given to EWIS Sri Lanka from 2020 November.
Sanjeewa Wickramanayaka also said that clarification in this regard has already been submitted to the COPE Committee. (NewsWire)
