This became possible after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) signed a contract with Oberthur Technologies, the France-based security printer, on Friday, ending a year-long row over procuring the MRPs from the international suppliers. [break]
"Under the contract, Oberthur Technologies is required to supply a first lot of passports within 70 days from the date of signing the agreement. We are planning to start issuing MRPs 15 days after the date of first delivery of passports," said Chief of Protocol Mukti Nath Bhatta after the singing of the multi-million dollar deal.
Selected through competitive bidding, the French security printer will supply a minimum of 3.4* million to maximum 4.6* million MRP booklets in the next five years. The French firm will supply each booklet at a cost of US$ 3.59. The total cost of the project will range between approximately US$ 12.20 million and US$ 16.51.
"As the company will have to pay five percent tax, the actual price of each booklet will come down to US$ 3.41," Bhatta, who signed the deal on behalf of the ministry, said.
Oberthur will have to supply 400,000 copies of the passports, including 10,000 diplomatic passports, 15,000 special ones and 25,000 travel documents, by November 21.
"I assure that the passports will be delivered on time," Florian Pacquelin, the Oberthur official who signed the deal on behalf of the company said, "We have already ordered papers and materials."
This is the third attempt of the ministry to procure MRPs from an international security printer.
As per its commitment to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Nepal was required to introduce MRPs by April 1, 2010. But the deadline was missed after a tender to select an international security printer was aborted midway for "technical reasons" last December.
The move had led Nepal to request ICAO to extend the deadline till August 1, 2010.
Then the government had tried to procure MRPs from India in March this year and even signed a deal to that effect. But the government later revoked the deal following a directions from the parliamentary committee and pressure from the UCPN (Maoist).
Nepal made yet another request to ICAO to extend the deadline, till December 31, 2010, following which MoFA began an international bidding process in April. Four international security printers had applied for the project and the French company was preferred for its competitive offer.
The deal with the French security printer should have been signed much earlier but controversies over the selection of Oberthur and approval of the passport design delayed the deal. The agreement became possible after the cabinet approved the design on Thursday.
Office please!
The MRP deal has finally been signed. But it has posed a problem for the ministry, which lacks the building to house the personalization printers and other machinery.
"We have to evacuate our passport section within seven days but we do not have another building to shift the section to," said a senior official at the ministry. "If we cannot find an office building, we´ll not be able to issue the passports."
As per the agreement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is supposed to provide space at its northern office building to Oberthur Technologies by next Friday. Currently, the office is being used for passport issuance.
The official said that the ministry has informed the government about the problem but to no avail.
Located inside Narayanhiti Palace premises, the ministry does not have its own office building since its former building was turned into the residence and office of the president in 2009.
kiran@myrepublica.com
* corrected.
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