Passport crisis being handled casually

It beggars belief that for the majority of Malawians getting or renewing a passport should be like climbing Mount Everest. No! No! Why? Why should we come to this level? Something is terribly wrong. Malawians are suffering which authorities don’t seem to appreciate. They are handling the crisis with kid gloves.

The passport muddle has been upon us since December 2021 when government finally terminated the controversial passport contract worth $60.8 million (K103.5 billion) awarded to Techno Brain Global FZE IN 2019.

In announcing the cancellation, Attorney General, Thabo Chakaka-Nyirenda, on December 9 2021, said that the move was in accordance with the Section 46 (c) of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Act (2017).

‘‘We must always do the right thing, no matter what it takes. As a country we have a duty to ensure that we safeguard public funds from plunder.

In part, Section 46 (c) of the PPDA Act 2017 states that: a procuring and disposing entity may terminate a procurement contract for convenience if it is determined to be in public interest. In short, the contract was cancelled because it was deemed too expensive and in favour of the contractor.

From the foregoing, we can say the intention for terminating the contract was in good faith. But government did not foresee the consequences of its decision to terminate the deal. It has turned out that the decision is hurting the same public in whose interest the contract was said to have been  cancelled.

Probably government heavily underestimated how Techno Brain would respond to its decision. The firm challenged the cancellation arguing that under the Build, Operate and Transfer contract it signed with the Malawi Government in 2019, it was also responsible for  creating the country’s new passport infrastructure, with plans to develop capacity to maintain and operate the system over time and train the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services (DICS) officers.

Techno Brain claims when government announced the cancellation of the contract in December 2021, these plans were cut short. So early in January 2022, the firm announced that since it was prohibited by the Malawi Government from accessing its infrastructure, it was regrettably unable to conduct scheduled maintenance procedures that were up-coming on January 20 2022.

‘‘Failure to perform these procedures is expected to result in disruption and potentially a full system shut down,’’ Techno Brain warned in a statement ahead of its scheduled maintenance plan.

But for whatever reason DICS and the Malawi Government looked aside perhaps thinking Techno Brain was just trying to create a storm in a cup of tea. Or, they naively thought the maintenance Techno Brain wanted to do they would easily find someone else to do.

Ignoring Techno Brain’s advice to conduct the maintenance was a big mistake.

The dreaded but inevitable happened in January this year when the full system shut-down. The development left hundreds of passport applicants stranded.

Whoever has been advising President Lazarus Chakwera on the matter, has done a very bad job. In what sounded like the joke of the year, the President told Parliament on February 24, 2024 the shutdown was by caused by what he termed ‘digital mercenaries’ who he said had hacked the system responsible for printing passports.

As a way forward, the President gave DICS three weeks to provide a temporary solution and resume the printing of passports. The three weeks passed and DICS had not found a solution.

On April 15, 2024 the Malawi Government said it had engaged local information and communication technology as the new passport system supplier, E-Tech Systems, to address the passport crisis at DICS. 

Homeland Security Minister Ken Zikhale-Ng’oma reported in April the new firm was issuing 500 passports per day in Lilongwe which was a far cry from the 35 000 passports applications.

To date, passport issuance remains a full-blown crisis with hundreds of angry and desperate applicants waiting in vain at the Lilongwe DICS office, for the document to facilitate travel for studies, medical and business purposes.

Lilongwe DICS office remains the only place where passports are being issued. It is a disaster of gargantuan proportions, and a hopeless situation, as the desperate Malawians from all parts of the country stand on long queues to be assisted for days on end.

DICS employees wanted their director general, retired Brigadier Charles Kalumo fired for incompetence. Thank God  it is the court which did the job, and not Chakwera. It is obvious he was not helping the President solve the mess.

Meanwhile, it is not known how long Chakwera, who in February this year, vowed never to give in to the demands of the ‘digital mercenaries’ and pay them billions to restore the passport issuance system to normalcy, will stick to his guns with pressure mounting every day from everywhere to do something.

The situation is fast degenerating into anarchy. It is not something the Tonse Alliance-led administration should be doing with Tripartite Elections only 14 months away.