Public Accounts Committee to Discuss Passport Printing Irregularities

Kathmandu. The Public Accounts Committee meeting is scheduled to be held on Tuesday. The meeting, scheduled to be held at 9 am, is expected to discuss the irregularities in passport printing and the new passport system. It was claimed that there was a disagreement between Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal and the Prime Minister's Secretariat regarding whether to give the printing of new passports to a German company. After an agreement between the Foreign Minister and the Secretariat, the Department of Passports has announced that it will issue a notice regarding the new system and start the process of printing passports. From Asar 29, the department will print and distribute passports through the new system.

In the new system, German companies Veridos and Muhlbauer will print the passports. It was claimed that there was a commission manipulation and corruption in awarding the printing contract to these two companies, and the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a charge sheet in court on Asar 8 under pressure from the Prime Minister's Secretariat.

In the irregularities in passport printing, the CIAA had made the Director General of the Department of Passports, Tirtharaj Aryal, and Directors Sunil Kumar KC and Somesh Thapa as defendants. The Special Court has released the defendant, including Maniendra Raj Malla, the Nepal representative of the contractor company Muhlbauer, on bail.

Passport printing is on my notice, said Bharat Bahadur Khadka, Chairman of the Accounts Committee, to Ratopati. He said, 'The public should get quality passports and Nepal should not suffer.'

The committee is observing the government's working style, said Thapa. In the previous meeting of the committee, MPs had also raised the issue of passport printing. The formal agenda for tomorrow's meeting is to finalize the audit reduction committee and finalize the work procedures. Chairman Khadka plans to discuss it if the matter arises in the meeting. Regarding the passport agenda, Chairman Khadka says, 'There is no formal agenda, but the topic may come up for discussion.'

Similarly, there are allegations that the state-of-the-art security personalization printers with the Department of Passports are being replaced and new ones are being sought. Although the department had previously decided to replace printers worth more than 45 crore rupees and purchase new ones, that decision has not yet been implemented. A member of the committee informed that the matter may also be discussed in the meeting of the Accounts Committee.

Technicians say that the printers with the department will be operational until 2035. However, it is alleged that new printers worth more than 50 crore rupees are being sought by replacing them.

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed a case against 16 individuals involved in the passport printing decision-making process and two German companies, Veridos and Muhlbauer, as defendants. Former Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba was not made a defendant in this case.

The CIAA's investigation concludes that corruption amounting to 10 billion, 13 crore, 4 lakh rupees occurred in the passport printing case.

The Department of Passports had called for a global tender in Mangsir 2081 for the supply of 6.4 million new electronic passports for five years and its system management. The then Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba had formed a bid evaluation committee under the leadership of the then Director General of the Department, Tirtharaj Aryal, on Falgun 9, 2081, for the evaluation of the bid.

The investigation by the CIAA revealed that the German companies Veridos and Muhlbauer, which received the printing contract, had received 1 billion rupees as advance payment.

Muhlbauer had received a package of 1.55 billion and Veridos had received a contract of 6.55 billion. Allegations have been made that the contract was awarded with financial manipulation and regular commission.