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Rejoinder, our reply
Malaysian company IRIS has issued a rejoinder to two reports and an editorial run by The Daily Star recently.
The first report appeared on May 12 headlined "Passport supply in a shambles”, the second one on the following day titled "Not cooperating, still getting job", and the editorial on May 14 under the headline "MRP booklet supply in a bind."
The reports said delivery of passports was not possible from regional passport offices in 33 districts and also in Malaysia due to non-cooperation from the IRIS, and raised the question as to why the
FROM PAGE 1 government selected the company for delivery of passports to the expatriates in the UAE despite its noncooperation.
The editorial expressed surprise at the authorities' persistence on working with the Malaysian firm that breached the contract and failed to supply machine readable passport (MRP) booklets.
The IRIS rejoinder said the reports and editorial included some incorrect allegation and misleading information, which severely damaged the company's image and goodwill.
"We extended all support from our end, responded to all technical queries and provided all informa-tion/data as per the requirement of Dataedge," read the rejoinder.
The Dataedge, it added, failed to integrate their enrolment system with the central MRP system of the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) which the IRIS believes either the software of the Dataedge is faulty or the firm lacks competency in software integration.
About its non-cooperation with the passport authorities and delaying the integration of 33 offices, the IRIS said it submitted technical documents, deployed overseas engineers, held technical discussions and fulfilled all the requirement of the new contractor Dataedge for the integration of the offices as per contractual obligations.
Regarding the delay in the MRP project implementation in Malaysia, the IRIS said the Dataedge delayed in requesting the integration and implementation of a pilot application receiving centre beyond 30 days of signing the deal.
The IRIS claimed that it is not contractually obliged to technically support future extensions of MRP issuance centres at home and abroad. “All contracts are time bound, so is our contract with the DIP. We are not obligated to provide any support beyond the contract period," mentioned the rejoinder. It offered the DIP to use its software free of cost for integration with the central system.
The company also termed incorrect a part of the editorial, which said, "It may come as a surprise why the authorities persist in working with a foreign company that has failed to supply booklets for machine readable passport (MRP) to passport authorities."
The rejoinder said supply of MRP booklets to the passport authorities is not the responsibility of the IRIS.
The Malaysian contractor alleged that the Dataedge does not have any specialised third party software such as Automated Fingerprint Information System (AFIS), which is vital for the implementation of the project.
OUR REPLY
The IRIS's claim of extending all-out support, responding to all technical queries and providing all data to the authorities concerned strongly contradicted the statement of the MRP
project office.
In a letter titled "Nonprofessional approach of IRIS JV in implementation of government project" to the IRIS on May 16, the MRP project management detailed how the Malaysian company's integration process was causing problems to the government and suffering to Bangladeshi nationals.
Millions of people in 33 districts have been suffering, while a lot of pilgrims and workers are not getting passports on time, regretted the letter, accusing the IRIS of not engaging efficient engineers to the integration process. It said IRIS' lone manager does not have adequate knowledge on the IRIS software system.
The letter explained how the IRIS kept the system locked with validation rules and took long time to remove those.
"Besides the current integration issue, the overall project performance is being hindered due to continuous nonprofessional attitude by the IRIS... Some of the issues are to some extent clear violation of contractual agreement, which demands legal action," read the letter.
The IRIS blamed Dataedge-PWPW for failure to implement a pilot application receiving centre within 30 days after signing of the deal. But the Dataedge-PWPW readied a centre in Malaysia in less than a month and informed the government through a letter that it was ready for the pilot test.
The rejoinder said the Dataedge-PWPW required specialised third party software such as the Automated Fingerprint Information System (AFIS). As per the contract with the DIP, the Dataedge does not need AFIS. It has installed Neurotech, a finger image capturing machine, at 33 centres and also tested the software's compatibility with the central system owned by the IRIS. The Dataedge's Polish partner PWPW has been using the software in different countries.
According to the contract, the DIP has the full authority of the IRIS software system installed in the country. The DIP bought the system and pays the IRIS for its maintenance. So, the passport authority can use it whenever necessary for integration or other purposes.
The IRIS said it was not obliged to provide any support beyond the contract period. But its contract with the government has not expired yet and thus it is obliged to extend required support.
The claim that the IRIS offered free software to the government in March is misleading as the company is contractually obliged to provide the government with software support.
During preparation of our reports, we tried to incorporate the version of the IRIS. But when contacted, IRIS senior project manager Lee Soo Mei denied making any comment.
We stand by our reports and editorial.