Passport is a subject related to common citizens. The identity of every Nepali citizen in a foreign land is revealed by the passport itself. Passport is also the identity of the country. This issue has been in discussion ever since the passport department started the process of purchasing passports. The questions and disputes raised along with the purchase process seem to have raised various questions among the public.

Why is the passport not printed in Nepal?

Surakshan Printing Center has been established for the purpose of printing passports, smart licenses, postage stamps, national identity cards, bank notes, check books, excise stickers etc. within the country. It has been years since the security press was established and the preparations for operation started. The then executive director of the center was found guilty by a special court and sentenced to two years in prison and fined Rs. 4 people including him have been sentenced to imprisonment and fine. The press is not yet operational. A press is being set up at Panauti in Kavre. There is still a lot of infrastructure work to be done. The passport department had sent a letter to Suraksha Printing Center on June 3 last year asking about passport printing. The center informed on November 14 that the passport could not be printed as per the results and technical details as requested by the department. Director General Tirtharaj Aryal informed that the international tender was invited as there was no other option in the country.

What is the passport purchase process? 

Passport is a mandatory document issued by the government to travel abroad. A person who needs a passport obtains a passport after completing the process from the government agency. A passport arrives in the hands of a citizen after completing several procedures. An electronic passport (e-passport) has been issued in Nepal. The government is going to purchase the passport book with the system and packing needed to issue e-passport by inviting international bids. 

Two years ago on June 12, 2080, the then government decided to purchase electronic passports needed for at least five years through international bidding as soon as possible. The decision to purchase was made after the number of passport books in 'stock' was decreasing. Passport and its system comes under security printing. According to the Security Printing Act, 2081, printing should be done with security assurance using special marks, processes, techniques and special types of printing materials such as ink and paper so that unauthorized persons cannot copy them. Due to lack of passport printing and necessary system related to it in the country, international tenders are being called. According to the decision of the procurement committee formed under the coordination of Director General of Passport Department, Tirtharaj Aryal, the necessary procedures for purchasing passports have been increased. The department has started the process of buying 6.4 lakh passport booklets, its personalization, application processing and data management services in two packages for a period of five years. It was decided on August 31, 2081 by the secretary level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to purchase the passport system with pre-registration, registration, data management and distribution as package 1 and the passport book with personalization, quality control and packing as package 2. Last December 13, the department published tenders for both the packages. The director general of the department, Aryal, claims that the bids have been prepared and published in full compliance with the provisions of the law on public procurement so that all competitors can participate without discrimination. 

Why is there always a dispute in the passport purchase process? 

The process of purchasing a passport has always been controversial. Tenders were invited for the first time in August 2076 for the purchase of electronic passports. After the tender process at that time became controversial, the department had to cancel the tender notification itself. The notice of invitation to bid issued for the second time in February 2076 was also cancelled. The bidding process for the third time was completed in November 2077 and the French company Idemia got the contract for the supply of 20 million passports. After that, without going through the contract process, the department purchased 3 lakh and 2.8 lakh passports from Ideamia through Verizon. A question was raised about the procurement process without going through open competition. Before that, in 2010, the department awarded the contract to the French company Oberthur Technology to print 'machine readable passports'. Even then, the contract process was controversial. The same company was bought by Ideamia.

Why did the controversy start since the tender was called? 

After the bids were called for the purchase of passports, a series of protests began in various agencies. Complaints were lodged with the Abuse of Authority Investigation Commission, the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Order and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives, objecting to the conditions contained in the notice issued when the tenders were invited. The intent of the complaint was that the department had placed a condition that would help the Idemia company, which is currently supplying passports. French company Idemia has been supplying passports to Nepal since 2010. 

Ideamia supplied 71 lakh copies of 'Machine Readable Passport' (MRP). After that, 5.1 lakh electronic passports have been supplied. Complaints have been filed with the suspicion that Idemia, which has been supplying passports for 15 years, is about to be re-contracted. The complainant alleged that it was intended to restrict competition. For the first time, the department called for bids with a time limit of 45 days. After the intervention of the Public Procurement Monitoring Office, the department also amended some of the provisions in the tender notification, besides increasing the time for submission of bids. 

The deadline for submission of bids was set on February 9, with the deadline extended twice. 3 companies submitted bids for package 1 and 4 companies for package 2. The technical proposal was opened on February 9 and the financial proposal on May 14. French company Idemia, German company Mubauer were successful in package 1 in the evaluation of technical side, commercial side and competence. Similarly, all 4 participants in package 2, Ideamia, Mubauer, another German company, Veridos, and Poland's PWPW company were successful in technical qualification. The evaluation committee evaluated the financial aspect and recommended to award the contract of package 1 to the German company Mubauer and the contract of package 2 to the Veridos company of Germany. After the department issued a letter of intent to both companies on May 22, the procurement process was drawn into controversy again. 

What is the new controversy?

The French company Idemia, which was not selected in the final selection, submitted an application to the Public Procurement Review Committee on June 8, demanding a review of the decision. It is stated in the application given by Idemia that it is mentioned in the tender document that 'Blade Server' must be supplied but it is not legal to accept the bid for submitting 'Rack Server' without fulfilling the said technical specification. Likewise, it is also claimed that the German company does not have the capacity to print 6,000 passports per day at the rate of 1,000 per hour as requested in the bid. 

According to the terms of the contract, Veridos did not provide the required number of equipment, according to the complaint. Similarly, the exchange rate of foreign currency should be considered as the date of opening of financial proposal, as it is against the law to consider the date of opening of technical proposal on February 9, as it is against the law, Idemia demanded to cancel the decision made by the department. It has been claimed that the state has incurred a loss of around 28 crore rupees based on the regulation rate on the day the technical proposal was opened. Similarly, it is said that the 'cross package' discount offered by Ideamia was not considered during the economic evaluation as both the packages are interrelated.

It is claimed that if the 'cross-package' discount is considered, the integrated minimum bid figure would be lower than the contract currently awarded. He claimed that the total bid amount of both the Mubauer and Veridoz packages will be Rs 71 lakh 24 thousand 60 thousand less if he calculates the discount he will get by getting both the packages. Mainly based on these three issues, Idemia submitted a request to the Review Committee for review. Similarly, advocate Kusum Kishore Koirala filed a writ petition on June 16 regarding the passport purchase process. 

What did the review committee and the court say? 

The Public Procurement Review Committee on 5 July upheld the procedure followed by the passport procurement department. The three-member bench of the committee decided that the demand made on behalf of the representative of the petitioner, Ideamia Company, was not sufficient. It was also decided to confiscate the bond held by the petitioner and deposit it in the revenue account. For review, Ideamia kept a bank guarantee equal to 578 thousand dollars at the rate of 1 percent of the bid number. 

The review committee gave the decision that Ideamia will accumulate bank guarantee revenue worth about 80 million Nepalese rupees. The chairman of the committee is Raghuram Bista and the members are Rohit Kumar Bisural and Thaneshwar Gautam. Ideamia approached the Supreme Court seeking an injunction against the committee's decision. However, the Supreme Court did not register Idemia's petition. A writ petition of the same nature regarding the passport dispute filed by advocate Kusum Koirala was pending in the court and was tabled by the registrar of the Supreme Court. Hearing the petition of advocate Koirala, the Supreme Court did not issue an interim order on June 30. 

Where is the process now? 

The Public Procurement Review Committee has confirmed the procurement process as correct and the Supreme Court has not issued an interim order as per the request of the petitioner. The Department has entered into an agreement with Veridos for Package 2 and Mubauer Company for Package 1. Both companies will have to operate the service by February 25. 

The cost of a passport and the fees paid by the common man 

Package 1 (data management processing and passport distribution system) 1 billion 558 million 14 thousand 325 rupees and package 2 (related to the blank booklet of passport and its personal details) 6 billion 11 million 38 million 27 thousand 370 rupees have been approved. The total amount of both the packages is 7 billion 66 crore 46 lakh 41 thousand 600 rupees. According to the department, both packages cost $8.61 per passport. 

According to the procedure set by the Passport Regulations 2081, one has to pay 5 thousand rupees for a 34-page passport and 10 thousand rupees for a 66-page passport from the district administration office. Similarly, if they want to get it from the department, common citizens have to pay 12-20 thousand rupees respectively according to the number of pages. Similarly, foreign missions have different rates depending on the place. To get a passport from the countries of North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, you have to pay 150 US dollars for 34 pages and 200 US dollars for 66 pages. In the Gulf countries, 50 and 100 dollars are set according to the number of pages. In European countries, Russian Federation and other countries, depending on the country, 80 to 120 pages for less pages and 130 to 170 euros for those who want to get more pages. In the case of minors under 10 years of age, there is a provision to charge half the amount. 

Purchase cost reduced? 

The department claims that the purchase price of the passport has decreased this time compared to the past. According to the approved economic proposal for both packages, the cost of each ticket is $8.61. Aryal, director general of the department, says that the current price is lower than what will be purchased now. Currently, the cost of a single passport is $10.13. It claims it will now be $1.52 cheaper per passport. Director General Aryal has claimed that the purchase of 64 lakh passports will save the state about 1.35 billion.

What happens to the press and equipment that was used to print before? 

French company Idemia is now supplying passports. The department has 3 machines for passport personalization provided by IDemia. Also there is a passport application processing system. The current system can be operated for the next 3 years. However, Aryal said that support and maintenance should be purchased from the current supplier, Ideamia, for that operation. He said that discussions were held with the said company at various stages, but as the price offered by the said company was high, it could not be accepted. He claimed that the company did not accept the proposal to reduce the price time and time again. He mentioned that a more competitive solution was chosen beyond that binding situation. He said that three machines in the department are beneficial by the auilamy process. However, it is not evening that the Idemeia Bia side is supposed to provide necessary assistance to the department. He claims that the equipment in the department has more than 540 million. & Nbsp; The

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, the number of passports supplied as an old agreement is to decline, the department has begun a new purchase process. The government has started distribution of electronic passports (e-passport) in the issue of 2079. The Department of Since the Department of Since the Department of 51 million has purchased passport passports. Now the department has a passport only to 4 million numbers. About 60,000 have been damaged. 340,000, passports, estimates that it will reach up to the upcoming Oval Tam-December. As demand for ten-thy gift, the demand for the feast is estimated to reach the time. Day time is being distributed by the average rate of 5,000 rates. Since the new supplier is supplied only from February 25, the passports will be shortage of passports. However, the Director General Detachment of the Passport Department will not allow the Detail Dayative Estander. He says, for the rest of the period, the passport was supplied along with Idemia Company, and NBSP; Other old news related to