E-Passport rollout delayed due to high costs and tender manipulation
The Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) is compelled to continue with the issuance of ordinary passports at present due to limited progress and the delay in the implementation of the e-passport project, especially the procurement process that began in 2015.
It has been revealed that the process to introduce e-passports and to implement a new IT infrastructure will take at least 18 months from the date of contract award following the project’s tender procedure.
Therefore, it is quite certain that a new e-passport could not be introduced before February 2025 forcing the government to continue with the ordinary passport issuance, Public Security Ministry sources confirmed.
Until such time the introduction of an e–passport with an embedded electronic chip that includes biometric data of passport holders, will remain suspended.
E-passports typically provide high-level of security and provision for keeping personal details in addition to an electronic system that can only be read by a chip system.
Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles told the Business Times that he had suspended the invitation of the expression of interest (EOI) called for the selection of a prospective bidder to implement the electronic passport project.
This decision was taken due to the high cost of importing machinery and installing the new system he said adding that more than 700,000 e-passports should be issued per year costing around US$15 million under the proposed project.
He noted that the Cabinet had approved his proposal for the appointment of a special technical evaluation committee for related activities and accordingly to call for a new tender taking into account the current economic situation and needs of the country.
If the DIE awards the contract to a new supplier it has to buy a high volume passport printing machine system at a cost of around Rs.1.5 billion, relevant official documents revealed.
This plan of introducing e- passport has been shattered with the suspension of the Expression of Interest (EOI) called by the Ministry in accordance with the decision of the cabinet of ministers.
Accordingly the EOI issued newspaper advertisements on June 12, 2023 for 5 million e-passports to supply and personalise as built, operate and transfer (BOT) basis for 10 years.
However this EOI did not provide any opportunity for tenderers to submit their clarifications even at a pre bid meeting although it’s a standard basic procedure to allow bidders to clear their doubts etc in a large tender such as e-passports, several disgruntled bidders said.
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