Blockchain technology to upgrade credibility and efficiency in logistics sans corruption, malpractices, lethargy

THE Sri Lankan administrative machinery is highly infected with corruption and mismanagement.

- By Lt. Col. Chandana Weerakoon MSc

Blockchain technology is the ideal application to stop, mitigate or reduce the burden. This application is of good use also to the private sector when considering the examples of applications of the world."Blockchain technology" is a system for securely recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to alter, hack, or cheat the system. It’s the foundational technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but it has applications far beyond digital money. Alteration of documents and ledgers, taking decisions without considering the end user requirement in procurement procedures can be stopped or reduced by this important tool.

The biggest frauds are committed through the tender procedures and the procurement process starting from the engineering assessment, therefore, application can give high impact threat to the frauds as well as for mismanagement. According to the social assessments it is believed that 40% of governments' funds are cheated by the politicians, government officials in different capacities and the contractors. Apart from every other aspect the application can search the sincerity of the contractors too which is a common burden. Therefore, apart from control of robbing, this has the ability to guide the project according to a time plan and deadlines too. It is understood that there can be heavy lobbying against the implementation of the system by mentioned clan due to dissolving of the key interest but this system will respect the hard-earned public funds. Also, this does not need special changes to the existing systems since it is an interface with many renowned ERP softwares like SAP and Oracle which is in use at present.

■Security: Hard to tamper with.

■Transparency: Everyone sees the same data.

■Decentralisation: No single point of failure or control.

■Trustless systems: You don't need to trust a middleman (e.g., a bank/broker).