More controversies have clouded the terms of a contract for the production of electronic passport booklets, intended to deliver no less than 10 million electronic passport booklets. As Reps cite the implication of contract termination, they state that it will cost FG a loss of N22 billion, they suggest negotiations to avoid legal harm, unnecessary liabilities, and the delivery of an additional 10 million passport booklets are at stake.
In its decision, the House of Representatives warned the Federal Government against terminating the agreement, citing a N22 billion investment loss.
The lower chamber claims that the Federal Government would have no choice but to keep the contract it has with a private company called Iris Smart Technologies Limited to make electronic passport booklets.
According to the House, the government will spend approximately N22 billion to acquire the equipment necessary to incorporate the most recent security features into the Nigerian e-passport.
Additionally, the legislative chamber warned that the company’s production of 10 million booklets would be halted if the contract was terminated.
The positions are a part of the recommendations in the House Ad-Hoc Committee’s report on the proposed domestication and processing of Nigerian international passports that the plenary considered and adopted on Tuesday.
In the report, the Council noticed that the Iris Shrewd Advances Restricted Recharging Concurrence with the Government Service of Inside of April 2015 obviously expressed in Article 4:0 that the span of the agreement will be for the conveyance of an extra 10 million identification booklets.
That’s what the Board expressed “time will be of the substance assuming the agreement explicitly states it or on the other hand on the off chance that there are conditions to show that gatherings expected opportunity to be of the pith.
“It would be to the Federal Government’s legal disadvantage to unilaterally terminate this agreement for any reason until it runs its course, which is the production of 10 million e-passports or the current remainder under the circumstances,” the agreement states.
“The Federal Government can engage in negotiations with ISTL in accordance with Paragraph 4 above to investigate suitable options for maintaining the e-passport infrastructure until the contract is fully executed.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc should be further advised to adhere to this opinion in the overall best interest of the Federal Government, so that we do not incur unnecessary liability on our limited financial resources through avoidable litigation or other more expensive dispute resolution mechanisms.”
“The process was fair, equitable, transparent, and adhered to all international standards because the current domestication project was initiated by the Nigerian Immigration Service in conjunction with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and based on reports and presentations by all relevant stakeholders, particularly the ICRC. Thusly, the cycle ought to be permitted to be finished up,” the Board of trustees held.
The Committee also said that the current management of the NIS started the domestication process, which takes 90 to 180 days to complete and will solve the problem of a lack of passports.
In order to address the issue of booklet scarcity prior to the domestication process, it emphasized that Iris Technologies and the NIS “should be unlocked by CBN and allow NIS and Iris Technologies to have access to the revenue component being generated” through the sales of passports in foreign countries.
Posting its discoveries during the test, the Panel made sense of that an e-identification project is innovation based and not a security printing task, similarly as with the Machine-Lucid Visa period; that the security printing part of an e-identification comprises just 13% of the different parts of an e-visa booklet; and that domesticating the production of e-passport booklets does not completely eliminate the requirement to import components and foreign currency.
The Board likewise made sense of that an e-visa booklet is a functioning electronic gadget, rather than the old MRP, which is a just printed booklet; that the chip implanted in the e-visa has a security access module that considers a ‘handshake’ with and among different gadgets and gear inside the e-identification organization; and that, within the network, the system prohibits the “infiltration” or use of non-prequalified third-party devices or other booklets.
“The Nigerian Security Printing and Stamping Plc isn’t an innovation organization; MINT cannot provide an e-passport solution because it is a security printer. Consequently, it requires an innovation accomplice on the off chance that it should go into the e-visa project.
This secured e-passport network contains local and international systems and equipment worth more than N22 billion. Therefore, this technology infrastructure would have to be eliminated if a new booklet solution provider was chosen. The Committee stated, “This investment would be lost, and a new network would need to be purchased and implemented at a greater cost to the Federal Government.”
It also said that no country can have two different e-passport projects going on at the same time. Additionally, it said that it would take 36 to 48 months to roll out a new e-passport solution, “with the attendant consequence that no e-passport would be issued both locally and in foreign missions for that period.”
In addition, it stated that during the rollout of the new e-passport solution, there would be no passport issued and no revenue generated by the project.
