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Machine-readable or electronic passports?
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By Gopal Thapa
Indeed, passports are documents that are not only sensitive from security standpoint they also symbolize national pride, national independence and self-respect for every one who carries it during overseas travels. From security perspectives, therefore, it becomes the bounden duty of the every Government to ensure that those documents which are a symbol of national identity and pride are secure, highly reliable, tamper-proof and easy for processing at international airports by immigration officers. The mandatory introduction of machine readable passports, as per the ICAO guidelines by all its member countries by April 2010 have come precisely with those very objectives in mind.
Present controversy
Given the controversies created by the reported decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) to grant MRP books printing contract to the Government of India, it is like putting one’s hands into a hornet’s nest, trying to touch upon this issue. But the issue of Passport which is so important for every Nepali wanting to undertake overseas travels, there is a need to try to dispel some of the misperceptions and misunderstanding that seem to be surrounding the MOFA in its efforts to print and secure Machine readable Passports.
Importance of the specification document
When it comes to the printing and supply of passports, the Specification Document constitutes as a fundamental guiding document. The entire process, starting from issuing tender notices, opening of the bid documents, their assessments in terms of the reputation of the printers, the quality, reliability, security and durability of the passport books that they offer in their bid documents have to be in keeping with the conditions as stipulated in the specification document. Additionally, what types of covert and overt security features should be incorporated in the passport books, quality and type of security laminate, polycarbonate or normal - have also be categorically mentioned in the specification document for bidders to comply with them accordingly. Therefore, preparation of the Specification document containing all the necessary information would entail a great deal of efforts and care by those involved in this preparatory process. Clarity of information in the specification document, therefore, is key to rendering the entire bidding process free of controversies, afterwards
Issues involved
There seems to be mainly three issues to this controversy. The first one pertains to the bidding process for printing of the machine readable passport books. When the bidding was complete and the bid documents were opened and assessed, the lowest price, offered by one of the international bidders was reported to be at US$3.50 per passport booklet. It is not clear whether the price offered did include delivery of the passports up to the destination; that is Kathmandu. But as it used to be an integral part of the printing deal in the past, surely, this time also it is assumed that the delivery cost up to Kathmandu must have been included within the price quoted.
The second issue involves the reported cancellation of the bidding, when the entire process of assessment was said to have been complete. It is not that the concerned authority cannot cancel the bidding; it can certainly do so, but the conditions and circumstances in which such powers can be invoked have got to be clearly spelled out in the specification document. In order to maintain transparency and fairness and also to preempt the unnecessary controversies and confusions it would be prudent to provide sufficient and credible reasons in so doing. In the absence of any clear explanation coming out of the MoFA so far to this end, it cannot be said anything definitively whether or not those requirements were complied with before taking the cancellation decision. It is assumed that the authorities in the Ministry must have mulled over the consequences and arrived at the decision in conformity with the stipulations as provided for in the Specific document.
Bilateral arrangements
The third aspect of the controversy is related to the MoFA’s decision to seek Cabinet approval to conclude bilateral agreement with India for granting it the permission to print reportedly 4 million copies of MRP booklets at a unit price of US$ 4. This decision reportedly came after the cancellation of the bidding process in which the one of the eligible bidders is said to have quoted the unit price of US$3.50. Fifty US cent less than the Indian price. If we were to print four million booklets, as has been reported, the difference in price will translate into a whopping US$ 2 million! Quite clearly, the amount in difference is quite substantial!
If the Indian offer is merely for the printing and supply of passport books, then it can be fairly said that the offer is neither competitive in price, nor is the technologically reliable. In the absence of the competition, one is not sure about the quality of technology India is going to offer. It can not also be said whether the deal is in compliance with the provisions in the Public Procurement Act, and the Specification Document.
Lack of exercise in public diplomacy
Part of the problem for this unfortunate scenario has to do with MOFA’s inability to exercise in public diplomacy; that is to say trying to inform the public and media from time to time what the MRPs are all about, as this generation of passports are being introduced for the first time in the country. Because this type of Passports are cost intensive, have unique security features of highly technical nature and involve complex process of data collection, collation and their integration into the Passport books, understandably, such complex technical procedures are not easily comprehensible even for those officials working in the Protocol Divisions, let alone for the ordinary public. Therefore, understanding these complex and highly technical issues easily by ordinary people, without some briefings is out of questions. So, it is but natural to expect that the entire processes such as preparation of specification, calling of tender, opening of tender bids and finally the contract awarding process have to be done not only in keeping with the existing rules and regulations but also the concerned officials need to be seen pursuing these procedures in an open and transparent manner, as a possible way of avoiding controversies. This is in no way to say that the MOFA did not do that. But it is generally felt that attempts at exercising in public diplomacy when it was going to introduce such a large -scale and highly technical - natured MRP project, for the first time should have been done sufficiently and on a regular basis.
MRPs or e-Passports?
While the passport controversy is raging in the country, this scribe came across an article posted on the internet by a Bangladeshi paper. The news said that the Parliamentary Committee of Bangladesh had recently asked the Government to scrap the MRP project, for which it had already sanctioned more than 3.5 billion Taka to issue around 18million MRPs in the next four years. Instead, it had directed the Government to introduce electronic passports to save public money, saying that such passports would be used worldwide after machine readable passports would become invalid in 2014, as per the mandated requirement of the ICAO, and that it was undesirable to spend several hundred corers of Taka for issuing two types of passports, now and again in 2014. There were other reasons cited in favor of moving directly to e-passports; this effort will save the government from the double financial burden, was affordable and within the approved budget for MRP project.
In this context, this scribe admits his ignorance that there is yet another mandatory ICAO requirement in 2014 to discard the MRP generation of passports and instead, migrate into e-passports. Perhaps the MoFA could do well to check the relevant ICAO documents and clarify if this is indeed the case. If that is the case, then perhaps it would be prudent for our MoFA officials to check through our embassy in Dacca what the Bangladeshi Government is doing at the moment to implement the project. We can take a page from what Bangladesh has done and perhaps think seriously in terms of scrapping our present MRP project and consider shifting directly to e-passports project, so as to save double financial burden, both for the people and for the government. There seems to be no point trying to launch an expensive MRP project now, only to be replaced in four years time with yet another equally cost intensive e-passport project.
It is quite clear by now that Nepal is not going to meet the April 01 ,2010 ICAO deadline in any case, even if it were to go for the Indian deal. It is to be noted that if everything went smooth and the current bilateral deal were through from the Parliament, even in that case also the Ministry may have to spend at least another six months if it were to launch the MRP projects and begin implementing it on a war footing!
So the first wisest thing to pursue in the prevailing situation would be to undertake issuing the existing stock of hand scripted machine dumb passports on a war footing, within March, this year. It is said that the Ministry has already taken steps to that end, which is laudable.
The second priority perhaps could be for the MoFA, to try to undertake serious costs and benefits exercises, if it were to launch the e-passport project directly, instead of the already bogged-down MRP project. If the cost for e-passport, as has been reportedly claimed, is found almost the same as that of the MRP, or not very significantly high, then perhaps the e-passport project could and should be the preferred option for the government to initiate in place of the MRP, in real earnest and try to finish it in the next six months, or so. This may save the country from having to spend yet another exponential amount, after 2014 for the same purpose, aside from going through the administrative and legal rigmaroles. Besides, there are many advantages that this generation of passports have; they come with latest of technologies, are found to be more secure, reliable and durable, they are virtually impossible to tamper, and moreover offer easy and hassle free international travels for the bearers, unlike the hand written passports. Going straight to e-passport project can prove to be advantageous in many ways. Nepal will be spared from having to launch yet another project in 2014 for the same. We will take advantage of the latest technology available for e-passport at around the same price as for the machine readable passports. But the e-passports are considered much more secure, reliable and durable for international travel all over the world as they use the latest technology in the electronic chip which is near impossible to break and tamper with. Nepalese people deserve for the better quality of passports now that they have endured enough of humiliation at the international airports having to carry higly insecure handwritten passports, apart from the other scandals of passport theft and photo substitution ,to name a few. The latest generation of e-passport, therefore, will be a rare gift for the Nepalese people from the government of “Ganatantratik Nepal”. Let the present government be credited at least for doing one good thing for people!.
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