Exhibit 1: Where are the proceeds from the sale of trade statistics going?

Source: As per information received by Verite Research on 11th November 2018 through an RTI request to SLC.

data remains highly restrictive. This Insight finds that a key reason for SLC’S resistance to provide free online access to trade data is the prevailing incentive structure within SLC. This incentive structure acts as a disincentive to provide online access to trade data free of charge.

On trade data, SL is a laggard on global stage

Countries in the region and across the world, recognising that trade data is a ‘public asset’ and realising the benefits of improved access to trade data, are establishing online platforms that provide instant free access to updated and reliable official trade statistics. Sri Lanka’s backwardness in giving access to trade data shows up in two ways in the global stage.

First, Sri Lankan data is outdated on international trade platforms. This lack of updated data is a problem because it can cause Sri Lanka to lose valuable opportunities.

International agencies such as the United Nations and International Trade Centre have come forward to facilitate easy access to trade data. Global databases such as the UN COMTRADE and ITC Trade Map provide access to data on trade for a large number of countries across the world. These databases provide that added value by enabling countries to understand opportunities and challenges the businesses in their own countries face in the world market. forward in 2020 to address this gap that the situation has improved. The EDB platform is an important step in the right direction. However, it does depend on SLC to provide timely accurate data and does not provide monthly trade statistics. The platform is also a little bit behind the ease of access standard set by the rest of South Asia; it still requires users to pay an annual registration fee to access the data.

Bad incentives can lead to bad outcomes

One of the key elements that is causing Sri Lanka to fail and become a laggard in the international stage is the bad incentives set up for public officials. Currently, the government rewards public officials, through an incentive scheme, to conceal data and make it costly.

In a world where governments are proactively encouraging government agencies to share data online and free of charge, the Sri Lankan government has put in place an incentive structure that does exactly the opposite.

An incentives scheme allows government officers to generate private income by selling public data: A letter issued by the Finance Ministry, dated November 16, 2004, grants permission to SLC to sell trade data and to split the proceeds as follows: 40 percent of the proceeds to be allocated to the consolidated fund of the Finance Ministry and the remaining 60 percent is to be distributed at the discretion of the director general of SLC amongst the officers involved in compiling the data set.

Here, the government has given explicit permission for government officials to make private money by selling a public asset. As a result, the public and the country are denied the cycles that further perpetuate the bad idea.

RTI information shows bad idea is not working

Information provided in response to an RTI request filed by Verité revealed that in 2017, SLC has earned Rs.8.6 million by selling trade data. Of this, as per the letter issued by the Finance Ministry, up to Rs.5.16 million would have been distributed among the SLC officials collecting the data (refer Exhibit 1). This means the government has earned a mere Rs.3.5 million in return for the widespread negative consequences created for the economy by restricting access to data. This amounts to just 0.0004 percent of the total revenue collected from SLC through import taxes.

If it was hoped that the scheme would incentivise otherwise nonproactive public officials to market and promote the use of data and become more ‘customer oriented’ in its provision, then that has not happened either. In addition to the data not being made available freely and proactively, even basic information required to be provided under RTI regulations are not available. That is, information such as the types of data available, fee structure for accessing data, time taken to provide the data and contact numbers, in order to start the process, is not publicly available either.

(Verité Research is an independent think tank based in Colombo that provides strategic

analysis to high level decision makers in economics, law, politics

and media. Comments are welcome. Email publications@

veriteresearch.org)