AG terminates passport contract
Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda has terminated a multi-billion kwacha passport contract government had signed with Techno Brain in March 2019.
The termination came three days after the AG faulted the procurement process of the $60 million (about K47.4 billion) contract between Techno Brain and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services.
The AG confirmed in an interview on Thursday that he has ordered the termination of the controversial contract and gave the multinational company a 30-day notice based on Section 46(c) of the Public Procurement Act.
Asked if government had considered remedies as the Department of Immigration was already facing challenges in the production of the passports, Nyirenda said the Director General of Immigration was better positioned to take that question, but he was aware they can issue passports manually.
“The department would be able to give answers on what they would do to ensure smooth running of their operations. Issuing of passports is just a fraction of services they offer” Nyirenda said.
The AG, at a news conference on Monday which he addressed alongside Minister of Information Gospel Kazako in Lilongwe, said the contract was not supposed to be signed in the first place because there were several things that were wrong.
Nyirenda said the contract was fraught with irregularities and he wondered how controlling officers went ahead to sign it.
The AG told journalists that apart from retaining proceeds from the production of passports, Technobrain had been asking for payment from Account Number One, warning officers that were involved in the misprocurement would face the law.
In September this year, the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) called for a cancellation or variation of the contract because it was fraught with irregularities.
The contract signed in March 2019 by the then ruling Democratic Progressive Party government was for Techno Brain Global FZE of United Arab Emirates (UAE) to upgrade the country’s passport issuance system.
The deal also involved the introduction of an electronic passport under the Build, Operate and Transfer (BoT) model by providing 800 000 electronic passports under procurement reference number IM/01/272/07.
But HRDC alleged that controlling officers who signed the document failed their duty to safeguard public funds. The grouping said clause 24 of the contract, saying limitations of liability for commercial contacts is normally 10 percent but alleges that the passport book contract put limitation at $500 000.
Details have emerged that for every passport booklet issued, Malawians get a raw deal as the government makes a profit of between K30 000 and K117 000 largely due to overpricing.
Documentation which this paper saw at the time showed that the supplier of passport sources the booklets from Vienna, Austria where the average unit cost of each booklet is $9.13 (K7 221.83) and from Singapore where the cost is around $1.73 (K1 368.43).
The supplier, then sells each booklet to the government at $76 (K60 166), including supply of 1 600 units of ink ribbons and 1 600 crystagrams—a series of holographic images—required for the printing of e-passport booklets.
Rough calculations show that Techno Brain makes a profit of between $66.87 (K52 894.17) and $74.27 (K58 708.02) per passport booklet supplied to the Malawi Government. Markups in the price include costs of freight
The e-passport fee structure issued by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services shows that an ordinary passport of 36 pages obtained under normal service is at K90 000 while the 48-page one is at K130 000.
Express service for the 36-page booklet is at K160 000 and K180 000 for the 48-page booklet while replacement for a lost or damaged booklet fetches K150 000 and K170 000, respectively.
In 2020, World Bank debarred Techno Brain and requested Malawi to cancel the contract with it, accusing the company of alleged collusion and fraudulent practices it used to influence awarding of the contract.
