Passport printing contract award to Govt. Printer raises feasibility issues
A new plan to hand over the passport printing contract to the Department of Government Printing has raised technical feasibility issues owing to its lack of resources specially machinery despite the directive issued by Mass Media Minister Dullas Alahapperuma.
He has directed the Secretary to the Ministry of Mass Media to take over the printing and issuance of passports through the Government Printer.
Presently this printing is handled by an Indonesian company charging from the government around Rs. 1 billion to print one million passports sufficient for one and a half years.
The Ministry has already prepared a cabinet memorandum seeking its approval to procure a high volume passport printing machine system at a cost of around Rs.1 billion, relevant official documents revealed.
According to the memorandum, it is stated that the Government Printer can print and supply the requirement of 600,000 passports annually at a total cost of around Rs. 700 million if the necessary facilities are provided.
Media Minister Dullas Alahapperuma told the Business Times that printing passports at the Government Press will save much needed foreign exchange in the country, especially at a time when the country is faced with a dollar crisis.
He noted that spending money for modern machinery with state-of-the-art technology for Government Press will be a long term investment that will help modernise the institution.
However the Department of Immigration has been assigned to State Defence Minister Chamal Rajapaksa and it is compulsory to obtain cabinet approval to award the contract to the Government Printer even on an unsolicited bid.
The Business Times reliably learnt that the Department of Immigration has suggested that the Government Printer submit its bid at the upcoming international competitive bidding process for the new stock of passports.
However the Government Printer has to comply with the minimum standards of a security printer as recommended by international standards.
The department has expressed its interest to enter into the passport printing arena without even having a fraction of necessary infrastructure, machinery, technical knowhow and skilled manpower, private printing industry officials said.
The eligible printing company should have the technological and professional background necessary for biometric passport production, including intaglio printing technology, cutting-edge printing to produce passport booklets with security features complying with the standards as recommended in the ICAO DOC 9303 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation
The Department of Immigration intends to issue the next new stock of passports at least by next year, so doubts have been raised on whether the Government Printer can meet this tough deadline.
Several relevant ministries including the Finance Ministry which had reviewed the present cabinet memorandum were of the view that spending a massive sum of Rs.1 billion for printing machines under the present financial difficulties would not be feasible for the time being.
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