By: Isuru Parakrama
Colombo (LNW): After receiving a series of complaints on technical errors in the notice calling for Expressions of Interest (EOI) for electronic passports (e-passports), Public Security Minister Tiran Alles has decided to suspend the notice and call for tenders.
The Cabinet paper put forward by Alles proposing the appointment of a technical assessment committee to assess the affairs pertaining to the matter and calling of tenders in consideration of the country’s economic situation has been approved by the Cabinet.
The EOI notice for e-passports was subjected to a series of complaints by those who had forwarded their EOIs claiming that it consists of many technical errors. Taking the matter into consideration, the Minister has called off the process and decided to proceed with the general procurement process.
More than seven hundred thousand e-passports ought to be issued per year and the affair may cost about US $15 million, a senior ministry official disclosed.
In addition, millions of dollars have to be spent on the machines used to issue the passports and the issuance of e-passports, therefore, has become a burden attracting a high cost, he revealed.
