The People’s Struggle Alliance (PSA), led by the JVP-splinter group, the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), yesterday called on their former colleagues in the government to conduct a thorough investigation immediately into issues related to the procurement of passports and allegations of fraud involving public funds.

Addressing the media in Nugegoda, PSA’s Colombo District candidate, Pubudu Jayagoda, contesting next month’s parliamentary election, warned that the government’s coffers would lose millions of US dollars due to a questionable deal with a private entity to purchase 750,000 N-Series passports, as per a Cabinet decision dated 02 Sept., 2024.

” Generally, around 2,800 passport applications are submitted daily, but recently, only about 1,000 passports have been issued. This shortfall is due to the government’s decision to issue a new type of passport. Until now, Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) hav been issued. The government decided to introduce e-Passports with a chip and enhanced security features. For this, a new Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) was required. Initially, the Expression of Interest (EOI) said the entity issuing the new passports must also handle the PKI. However, this requirement was dropped during the tender process, and the final tender was called without including PKI.

Four companies submitted bids during the tender process, of which three qualified. Among them, Epic Lanka submitted a bid of USD 9.85 million. The next bid from a Malaysian company, ‘Irish’, in collaboration with Metropolitan, was USD 6.37 million. The French company ‘Thales’, partnered with ‘Just in Time’, offered USD 5.02 million. Consequently, the lowest bid by ‘Just in Time’ was selected for the tender. However, Epic Lanka, which had been involved in passport issuance in Sri Lanka for 21 years,

challenged the tender process in court, claiming irregularities. This legal dispute delayed the implementation of the e-passport system, leading to long queues for passports.

Epic Lanka has consistently argued that it holds the legal rights to passport issuance in Sri Lanka, and if the contract is awarded to another company, they should receive compensation. However, the Department of Immigration and Emigration is convinced otherwise. Ultimately, the court ruled that if compensation were to be paid, it should be USD 1.5 per passport, and a committee would decide on the payment. A committee has been appointed, but it has yet to submit its recommendations.

Epic Lanka claims that it has legal authority to issue passports in Sri Lanka, presenting a letter to this effect, while the Department of Immigration and Emigration denies having received such a letter. This raises questions about whether the department signed an agreement with Epic Lanka as they claim, necessitating an immediate investigation, Jayagoda has said. Currently, ‘Just in Time’ has issued 750,000 passports, and for each passport, a payment of USD 1.45 is owed to Epic Lanka. This amounts to about a million dollars, representing a significant waste of public funds. The government must clarify its position on this matter immediately, says the PSA.

“It’s important to note that Epic Lanka was previously accused in a data fraud case related to the National Medicines Regulatory Authority.