Two German security printing companies—Veridos GmbH and Muehlbauer ID Service Gmb—have won the new e-passport contract, ending the domination of the French firm IDEMIA Identity and Security France SAS for a decade and half. The Department of Passports on Thursday issued letters of intent to award the two contract packages to the pair of Germany-based companies.

“It is to notify that it is our intent to award the contract for execution of eMRTDS system including pre-enrolment, enrolment, data management and delivery system (package I) to you as your bid price NRs 1,550,814,325.81 equivalent to USD 11,154,834.41 plus Rs738, 536.20 as corrected and modified in accordance with the instructions to bidders is selected as substantially responsive lowest evaluated bid,” the department said in the letter of intent issued to Muehlbauer ID Service GmbH.

Likewise, in its letter of intent issued to Veridos, the department said, “It is to notify that it is our intent to award the contract for execution of eMRTDS booklet with personalisation, quality control and packing system (package II) to you as your bid price NRs 6,113,827,370.14 equivalent to 41,029,978.53 euros plus Rs161,608,384.79 as corrected and modified in accordance with the instructions to bidders is selected as substantially responsive lowest evaluated bid.”

But the winning bidders will not start immediately supplying passports or installing their systems.

As per Nepal’s procurement law, the contract for government construction, procurement, supply, and other public projects is awarded to the lowest bidder.

“We will give one week to register any complaint against our decision,” said Tirtha Raj Aryal, director general of the Department of Passports. “If no one files a complaint, the contract will be signed within two weeks. But if any bidder files a complaint, we need to respond within a week. If the complainant is not satisfied with our response, they can go to the Public Procurement Review Committee, a semi-judicial body formed by the government. Until the committee passes its verdict, the process of awarding the contract will be on hold. If the PPRC clears the way, we will proceed accordingly,” Aryal told the Post.

After the contract is signed, the suppliers have to deliver the first consignment of passports within 240 days, he said.

Since 2010, after Nepal adopted machine-readable passports by scrapping the hand-written ones, IDEMIA has been providing both MRP as well as e-passport or biometric passports. The biometric passport has come into use only since 2022. Since IDEMIA won the bid in 2010 and, up to now, it has printed and supplied over 10.53 million passports to the Department of Passports.

Five international security printing companies had submitted bids for Nepal’s multi billion-rupee passport contract. The winning bidder should supply 6.4 million passports over five years.

According to the Department of Passports, Malaysia-based IRIS Corporation Berhad, France-based IDEMIA, and Germany-based Muhlbauer Group submitted bids for the first package, which involves the procurement of eMRTDs systems, including pre-enrollment, enrollment, data management and delivery. IRIS was out of the evaluation process.

Similarly, IDEMIA, Poland-based Polska Wytwornia Papierow Wartosciowych S.A, Germany-based Veridos, and Muhlbauer Group had submitted bids for the second package that involves the supply of “eMRTDs booklet with personalisation, quality control and packing system.”

The current passport supplier, IDEMIA, and Muhlbauer Group had competed for both packages.

As the passport stock goes down, the department aims to award the contract without further delay. It currently has fewer than a million passport copies including ordinary, diplomatic, official, travel documents and seaman’s passports.

“But as our stock of passport booklets has come down to under a million, if there is an immediate need for more passport copies, the department will have no option but to procure from IDEMIA through variation orders, with the Cabinet’s approval,” another official at the department told the Post.

The department had issued a global tender on November 28, 2024 for printing, supplying, and installation of the passport system. The deadline for bid document submission was extended twice at the request of bidders.