Blog

We write this in response to claims that the Digital Identification Bureau is in the process of selecting particular technology vendors and products for the YuTru identification platform.

This is not true, and all such decisions will be made by the YuTru consortium in full view of all members, with technical support from a range of experts and qualified firms, and through an open, competitive, and transparent process.

Perhaps the misconception comes from the fact that the Digital Identification Bureau has recently undertaken roughly 4 months of initial discovery of products in the global market place. This background research has been part of a structured survey and assessment of bank-grade identification platform products and services. The survey largely avoided small firms (20 employees or less) and selected from well-established platform developers with reference customers in both retail and investment banking and in a number of jurisdictions: the EU, the US, A-NZ, and Asia-Pacific.

The purposes of this exercise is to provide a comprehensive quantitative assessment and information to our consortium members of what is in the current global market place – and the range of features that are available among their offerings.

At no time has YuTru ever represented that it is responsible for or intending to select an identification platform or product or service or pilot or make that kind of a decision unilaterally of the consortium. This has been documented and communicated on a number of occasions in response to individual queries.

The key issue we seek to avoid is vendor lock-in and the enormous decades-long technological debt that is incurred by a rushed or poorly thought out acquisition. We seek to avoid this costly legacy by incorporating special conditions in the contracts of the suppliers who are eventually selected for provision of services to the consortium and this will be a first in Papua New Guinea. We will then share this method with all – in the hope that the method can be a template for enterprises and government to avoid the generation-long burden of technological debt caused by vendor lock-in, the lack of data portability, or cessation of a software company to be a going concern.

We would like be clear that the YuTru scheme is no way ready to buy a platform or suite or products and services. The standards that we adopt are yet to be defined by the consortium, and until that happens there can be no acquisition of any form of technology.

Trust frameworks are built on – as the name states – trust, fostered by open and transparent methods in plain view of the consortium members and onlookers. We strive to clearly communicate our actions through regular updates, and we invite anyone to make contact with us to review the market intelligence we have acquired so far from our early discovery activities or any other queries. Please email us and we will go on the record so you can reassure yourself directly from us, what YuTru is about and is trying to achieve in financial inclusion for Papua New Guinea.

Until next time, thanks for your support and effort to get us to ‘here and now’.