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Malaysia-based
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Luxembourg-based digital security firm Gemalto.
"The home ministry is now scrutinising the evaluation committee report to see whether there are any loopholes. A summary in this regard will soon be sent to the purchase committee for con-sideration," Additional Secretary to the Home Ministry Md Ghulam Hussain told The Daily Star yesterday.
He said the matter would be placed before the cabinet once the purchase committee approves it. He declined to comment on allegations that have been brought against the two companies.
The government in July floated a tender with a deadline of October 27 to bid for the project. A total of eight firms submitted bids. They are: Muhlbauer ID Service Gmbh, IRIS Corporation Berhad, Flora Telecom Ltd, Oberthur Technologies, BJ&C Security Printing Company Ltd, ST Electronics, Smart Cube Information System and Sasha Denim.
After financial scrutiny and technical evaluation, the government found two firms--IRIS Corporation Berhad and Flora Telecom Ltd--responsive for the task. In technical evaluation, both IRIS and Flora have been termed capable of meeting project requirements.
nNo pressure through propaganda will be successful this time as the government is very firm on the selection of the most competent firm,” said a home ministry official,
seeking anonymity. The source said quotations would also be given priority in finalising the firm for the project.
There are allegations that the lowest bidder was blacklisted in an e-passport (electronic passport) project in Turkey and did not submit lamination foil, an essential element for MRP to ensure security in passport. There are also allegations that IRIS is not capable of producing eight million passports in a year and have not issued a minimum of 25 million passports in other states.
Director (International Sales) of IRIS Michael Wong claimed that his firm did not participate in the Turkish project and the project was actually won by a consortium consisting IRIS Technologies (sister concern of IRIS Corporation Ltd) and Turkish company Kunt ElektronikSan.
In a letter to Project Director of MRP and MRV in Bangladesh Brig Gen Md Refayet Uliah, he said they with the tender documents submitted sample passport booklets with lamination foil as per the tender requirements. He also said his company is capable of supplying more than eight million passports a year and has already provided more than 25 million passports in countries other than Bangladesh.
Many experts raised the question whether the government would be able to meet the deadline set by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to start producing MRPs from April 1, 2010. They also questioned the government's firmness in introducing MRP when many countries across the world are introducing e-passports.
As per the tender requirements, all necessary hardware and software for the project would have to be supplied by the selected firm at one go. The firm will also supply MRPs for three years. According to DIP, 2.2 million passports will be necessary each year.
After the three years, the firm will hand over the project to the government.
The evaluation committee also discussed cancellation of a task won by a local concern of IRIS Corporation Berhad. It, however, accepted a letter from Turkish authorities that said IRIS had done its part perfectly.
The committee fears that if the two responsive bidders declined to implement the project, the government would not be able to float a fresh tender and start implementing the project due to time constraint.
"If anything like that happens, it will not be possible to introduce MRP and MRV within the ICAO set deadline," said the committee in its report.
The Ecnec on March 19 decided to issue 174,00,000 general and 10,00.000 urgent passports under the five-year project at a cost of Tk 283 crore.
The Awami League government sensing urgency of the matter assigned (he army to supervise the project and implement it on time.