News
Despite minister’s assurance, delays continue in obtaining passports
View(s):By Namini Wijedasa
The first batch of machine-readable passports (MRPs) being bought as a stopgap measure to solve an unprecedented shortage of travel documents is yet to arrive, despite Public Security Minister Vijitha Herath saying they were due between October 12 and 15.
The letters of credit (LCs) pertaining to the purchase of 750,000 MRPs (which is the total order) from Thales DIS Finland Oy will be opened next week.
The first installment of 10,000 passports will then be sent, authoritative sources from the Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) said. They were unable to provide a date.
There have been weeks of confusion regarding the process. A special Cabinet meeting was convened on Friday morning expressly to approve this urgent procurement. But last week Public Security Minister Vijitha Herath told the Sunday Times that Cabinet sanction had already been granted and LCs opened for the emergency order before the new government took over.
“We are not stopping that order from Thales,” Mr. Herath said. “If we stop, we won’t have passports. The process, whether right or wrong, will continue.” He also said Thales was due to supply the first stock of 47,500 passports between October 15 and 20 and that a second shipment of 100,000 MRPs is expected at the end of November.
DIE officials this week said, however, that the previous LCs had been opened for a separate order for five million ePassports, for which Thales “won” a hotly fought tender, and the company, along with its local partner Just In Time (JIT) Technologies (Pvt) Ltd., had offered to provide 750,000 MRPs within that ePassport tender to tide over the shortage.
But the Court of Appeal, through an injunction, had ordered the suspension of the ePassport tender. The Court thereafter (on October 1) issued a varied interim order allowing then government and the Controller General (CG) to buy MRPs—not ePassports—from “a suitable supplier as per the decision of the Government of Sri Lanka, to overcome the present crisis faced by the country.”
The Court’s original injunction dated September 26 had halted the purchase of both MRPs and ePassports. This was pending the consideration of a writ petition filed by Epic Lanka (Pvt) Ltd., the losing bidder in an allegedly mismanaged ePassport tender that also went to Thales/JIT. It was shortcomings in the ePassport procurement that caused the prevailing crisis.
Following the Court’s varied interim order, the Public Security Ministry and DIE this week consulted legal counsel that advised that separate Cabinet approval be granted for the urgent MRP procurement and that these should be purchased outside of the ePassport tender.
The DIE will open LCs once the Cabinet’s decision, reached on Friday, is conveyed to it, the sources said. The Department has around 5,000 passports left, with an issuance rate of around 1,000 a day. Sri Lanka has never before run out of passports. As a first instalment, Thales will provide 10,000 MRPs—and not 47,500 as the Minister had claimed—with the rest to follow. The DIE did not release a delivery schedule.
The Thales MRPs will have new security features and will be Sri Lanka’s “P” series passport. It will be significantly slimmer than the current N-series travel document but will cost the DIE more. Once it is received, the DIE will electronically transmit a brochure outlining the changed features to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The Department must also send physical samples of the passport to the ICAO lab in every country and foreign missions.
The DIE claimed, however, that this process would not hold up the immediate issuance of the “P” series. “ICAO will communicate with the respective immigration authorities worldwide and we can send the physical copies later,” the sources said. “The communication we have to send the ICAO is ready now.”
The quoted price of Thales for each N-series passport is Euro 4.52, or around US$ 4.96 per travel document. The addition of US$ 1.50 per passport would raise the taxpayer cost per passport to an exorbitant US$ 6.47 (nearly Rs. 2,000).
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal injunction against the purchase of five million e-passports remains in place until November 6. The respondents were ordered to file objections before the next hearing.
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!