The government on Tuesday repealed the work procedure issued by former Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane to give the data collected from the citizens for the National Identity cards to a private company.

A Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday decided to scrap the ministerial decision issued by the then Home Minister.

The meeting of the council of ministers has also decided to form a three-member probe committee to investigate Lamichhane’s decision to issue the ‘Citizen Details Verification and Inter-System Affiliation Procedure’ contrary to the Public Procurement Act-2007.

As per the decision, the committee will be headed by the Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office and will be tasked to investigate who was involved in issuing the procedure and how the decision was made.

The Cabinet, following a proposal by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, decided to scrap the procedure and investigate why it was issued against the law and given to a private company.

Lamichhane had issued the Citizen Details Verification and Inter-System Affiliation Procedure-2022 on December 28 after assuming office at the Ministry of Home Affairs. A notice for tender was issued giving just 7 days time and only one company was included in the competition in violation of the procurement act.

Within a month after the procedure was issued, the contract was awarded to Advantage International Pvt Ltd, the Nepal agent of the French company IDEMIA.

The government had officially launched the national ID distribution campaign in 2018 by presenting a card to a 101-year-old woman in Panchthar district, and to government employees at Singha Durbar, the central secretariat.

It announced plans to digitally integrate the driver’s licence, vehicle ownership certificate, banking services, tax payment system, voter ID card social security system, among other things, in the card. But even after five years since the launch, the card is not required anywhere except while applying for a passport or sitting for a medical entrance exam.