News
Tender to be floated soon for 500,000 passports
A tender for 500,000 machine-readable passports (MRPs) is to be floated in the coming days, authoritative sources said, adding that a committee is now drafting the relevant documents.
Meanwhile, the number of passports released daily has been raised to between 2,500 and 2,700 from the previous per-day cap of between 1,500 and 1,800. They include issuances via one-day and normal service, overseas missions, and the Department of Immigration and Emigration’s (DIE) four branches.
The quota—which is necessary to stretch current limited stocks as far as possible—was increased on the instructions of the Public Security Ministry. The Sunday Times reported last week that an influx of applications is expected in the coming weeks from candidates aspiring to take the Korean language proficiency test who must furnish passport numbers to qualify to sit.
Foreign job agents also urged the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) to intervene in guaranteeing an uninterrupted flow of passports to their clients, cautioning that repeated failure to fulfil requests for Sri Lankan workers will soon see receiving countries turn to other markets.
The SLBFE subsequently issued a letter to the Public Security Ministry stating that around 200 passports were required per day for prospective labour migrants. This is now being fulfilled, SLBFE Chairman Koshala Wickremesinghe said.
An open tender for 500,000 MRPs is likely to be called next week, the sources said, adding that a separate tender will be floated to personalise the books. Based on who wins it, Sri Lanka could have yet another new series of passports (the country shifted from N to P).
At present, the DIE is running through its existing stock, but at the current rate of issuance, the consignment is expected to finish between July and September. A backlog of applications has also not been cleared.
Separately, the outcome of the last tender for ePassports—awarded to Thales DIS Finland OY and its Sri Lankan partner, Just In Time (JIT) Technologies (Pvt) Ltd—remains challenged before the Appeal Court, challenged by losing bidder Epic Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.
The DIE is currently using up the “emergency” batch of 750,000 MRPs bought from Thales as a stopgap measure to solve an unprecedented shortage of travel documents arising from the mismanaged ePassport tender. These books are arriving in batches.
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