HRDC wants e-passport contract cancelled
Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has called for a cancellation or variation of a $60 million (about K47.4 billion) million e-passport contract government entered with a supplier in 2019.
In March 2019, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government signed the contract with Techno Brain Global FZE of United Arab Emirates (UAE) to upgrade the country’s passport issuance system and introduce electronic passport under the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model by providing 800 000 electronic passports under procurement reference number IM/01/272/07.
But a letter from the human rights group signed by its national chairperson Gift Trapence dated September 6 2021and addressed to Minister of Homeland Security Richard Chimwendo Banda alleges that controlling officers who signed the document failed their duty to safeguard public funds.
The letter cites Clause 24 of the contract, saying limitations of liability for commercial contacts is normally 10 percent but alleges that the passport book contract put limitation at $500 000.
The letter also alleges that, according to Clause 49, payments are not linked to passports issued and there is no performance bond guarantee as well as advance payment guarantee, meaning payments are due whether the contractor is performing or not.
Chimwendo Banda in an interview yesterday confirmed receiving the letter but was quick to say that the matter was beyond the ministry’s mandate.
Said Banda: “I will forward the letter to the office of Attorney General [AG] for appropriate action because the issues raised in the letter cannot be handled by a minister.” In a telephone interview, procurement specialist Amos Nyambo, who is former Malawi Institute of Procurement and Supply board chairperson, cautioned the government to tread carefully to avoid being sued by the contractor and end up paying more.
