Starter Kit. Idea 462 of 500. Cluster 24
Notary and document-checking services for Sri Lankans abroad in their dealings at home
The mechanism, from the book
The one thing. A country where people do not expect the rules to hold cannot build anything else, and proof can be manufactured by private people, one published record at a time.
The first step
Ask three Sri Lankan families abroad what documents they have needed certified or checked at home in the last year, and what it took: trips, fees, relatives chasing offices. Partner with a notary in one town and offer a fixed-price service with scanned copies sent the same week. The proof is the first paid order from a family abroad.
- Who pays first
- A family abroad who needs a document certified at home and has no relative free to chase it, paying for speed and a clear record.
- What leaves today
- Dealings at home for Sri Lankan families abroad stall on documents nobody can check from abroad; verified papers are the proof that lets them buy, sell and invest.
Ask first
- the Divisional Secretariat. Ask which documents families abroad most often need certified here, and how.
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask how to register a document service that works with a notary.
Check before you spend
Confirm that every certification is done by a qualified notary or lawyer, that original documents are kept safe, and that each fee is written down first.
Find out these three numbers
- What do families abroad spend now to get one document done?
- How many requests a month would one community group send?
- What would a notary charge you for each certification?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.