Rejection of Government Printer’s bid for e-Passport raises eyebrows
The rejection of the Government Printer’s bid for the e-Passport facility at a cost of Rs.650 million in July, 2017 making way for De La Rue Lanka’s bid of Rs.1.2 billion proposal without competitive bidding has come to the limelight due to the legal tussle over the award of the tender without competitive bidding.
The fundamental rights case challenging the decision to award the e-Passport project to UK-based De-La Rue Lanka was re-fixed for February 9 to support the “leave to proceed” application in the Supreme Court.
The Government Printer’s proposal was turned down by the Ministry Internal Affairs on the grounds that they wanted to call competitive bids under the Swiss Challenge Process, informed sources said.
This decision was taken despite the Government Printer being a 100 per cent state-owned entity and is the de-facto entity for security printing for the Government. This has been revealed in a letter sent by the Secretary to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Public Administration Ministry Secretary who was the chief accounting officer of the Government Printing department at that time.
The Secretary to the Internal Affairs Ministry in his letter stated that he is unable to consider his request because the Cabinet has already taken a decision to call competitive proposals for the E- Passport under the Swiss Challenge method.
Therefore, the Secretary advised the Government Printer to submit its proposal for evaluation as and when the open proposals are called under the Swiss Challenge Process.
The Cabinet then approved a proposal by the Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Harin Fernando to award the contract to supply an end-to-end e-Passport solution through an unsolicited bid to De La Rue Lanka Ltd.
Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) sources said that the cost to upgrade the existing infrastructure at the DIE to issue e-Passports would be less than Rs.50 million.
Lawyers of the petitioner who filed a Fundamental Rights case at the Supreme Court raised question as to why such an exorbitant amount has been approved to implement the new system under De La Rue Lanka Ltd.
In July, 2017, the Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration sent a letter to the Secretary, Ministry of Internal Affairs expressing the willingness of the Government Printer to supply the intended e-Passport to the DIE.
With the above letter, a feasibility study conducted by the Government Printer to set up facilities to print and supply e-Passports was included confirming that the Government Printer does possess the required knowledge and capabilities to produce e-Passports as required by DIE.