With the country\u2019s stock of passports fast depleting, the government is looking at an administrative crisis that could derail the plans of thousands of migrant workers, students and travellers in coming months.
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Officials at the Department of Passports say they only have 750,000 passports in stock, which could barely last six months. Among the three passport categories\u2014diplomatic, official and ordinary\u2014the department will soon be running low on official passports as two battalions of Nepali personnel are gearing up for peacekeeping operations abroad, according to two officials at the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf a credible alternative is not found immediately, there will be a serious crisis because the passport demand\u00a0will likely surge after Japan\u00a0and\u00a0Malaysia open their doors for\u00a0foreign employment,\u201d an official at the department told the Post on condition of anonymity. Japan has announced that it will be\u00a0accepting nearly 350,000 workers\u00a0from nine countries, including Nepal, over the next five years, while Malaysia will be taking in around 100,000 workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once these two lucrative destinations open for foreign employment, the present stock will not go beyond May, according to the department\u2019s calculations. As with South Korea, Japan requires a passport to apply for the language test before applying for a work permit. The Department of Passports currently issues around 1,500 passports every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThough we believe that the stock of passports will last a year and a half, it will not go beyond six months if foreign employment opens in Malaysia and Japan because people will be applying for passport renewals as well,\u201d another official at the department told the Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently, around 42,000 passports were issued through the passport department in Kathmandu in just 23 working days\u00a0after the US opened its Diversity Visa lottery, which now requires a passport number. This number does not include the passports that were issued from outside Kathmandu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After cancelling the global tender for e-passports, the government decided to procure e-passports from the firm that will be setting up a security printing press in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government is transitioning from machine-readable passports to biometric passports, as per the instructions of the International Civil Aviation Organisation. But with the cancellation of the e-passport bidding process, officials at the department say the country could soon face a shortage of passports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government has now instructed the Security Printing Division at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to hold negotiations with\u00a0IN Groupe of France\u00a0on the terms and conditions to set up a dedicated printing press in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A team from IN Groupe is\u00a0arriving in Kathmandu on Monday\u00a0to hold negotiations with ministry officials. A team from Germany\u2019s Veridos, which had also proposed a soft loan for the printing press, is also arriving Kathmandu on Wednesday to follow up on its proposal, according to ministry officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the government cancelled\u00a0an e-passport bid, hours before the tender submission deadline, it is now mulling a government-to-government deal to set up security printing facilities on a loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least five separate complaints have already been registered with the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee against the government\u2019s bid to procure a security printing press under a government-to-government deal, according to Rojnath Pandey, secretary at the committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the complaints registered with the parliamentary committee, according to a Nepali Congress lawmaker who saw the complaint and described the contents of it to the Post, says the government-to-government deal does not fit Nepal\u2019s requirements. The lawmaker also said the agreement is a source of corruption and that the project will turn into a white elephant because of high-interest rates and a lack of adequate business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nepali Congress, the primary opposition, has also called the government\u2019s decision \u2018policy corruption\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ram Sharan Mahat, a Congress leader and former finance minister, said the government bid went against established norms and practices not to take loans for such expensive projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe government should go for a competitive bidding process for any procurement. It is corruption if a government-to-government deal is being considered to set up the security printing press with high-interest loans,\u201d Mahat told the Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials say the department is left with two options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFirst, continue with the present contract with Oberthur Technologies to supply machine-readable passports until e-passports are delivered by the firm with which the government is considering a deal,\u201d said the official at the passport department. \u201cSecond, bring passports from the firm that will get the task of setting up the security printing facilities for which negotiations are yet to begin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An official at Oberthur Technologies, however, told the Post it won\u2019t be easy to continue with the present contract due to technological constraints and the small timeframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the 2015 earthquakes, the government had extended the contract with Oberthur to provide two million passports, citing an emergency. Of those supplied, over 1.22 million passports have already been distributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to\u00a0Mahat, establishing a security printing press is also a lengthy process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt will take at least four years to set up such a press,\u201d said Mahat. \u201cWhat will happen to the distribution of passports in the meantime?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\nAnil Giri<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the country\u2019s stock of passports fast depleting, the government is looking at an administrative…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-nepal","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n