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

Addressing the media in Nugegoda, Pubudu Jayagoda, PSA candidate in Colombo district, contesting next month’s parliamentary elections, warned that government coffers would lose millions of US dollars due to dubious deal with a private entity for the purchase of 750,000 N series passports, according to a Cabinet decision dated September 2, 2024.

“Typically, around 2,800 passport applications are submitted daily, but recently only around 1,000 passports have been issued. This deficit is due to the government’s decision to issue a new type of passport. Until now, machine readable passports (MRP) were issued. The government has decided to introduce e-passports with a chip and enhanced security features. For this, a new public key infrastructure (PKI) was necessary. Initially, the Expression of Interest (EOI) indicated that the entity issuing the new passports should also manage the PKI. However, this requirement was abandoned during the tender process and the final tender was issued without including PKI.

Four companies submitted bids during the bidding process, of which three qualified. Among them, Epic Lanka submitted a bid of $9.85 million. The next bid from a Malaysian company, “Irish”, in collaboration with Metropolitan, amounted to $6.37 million. The French company “Thales”, in partnership with “Just in Time”, offered 5.02 million dollars. It was therefore the lowest offer from “Just in Time” which was selected for the call for tenders. However, Epic Lanka, which has been handling passport issuance in Sri Lanka for 21 years,

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

Epic Lanka has always maintained that it has the legal rights to issue passports in Sri Lanka and that if the contract is awarded to another company, it should receive compensation. However, the Department of Immigration and Emigration believes otherwise. Ultimately, the court ruled that if compensation were to be paid, it should be $1.5 per passport, and a commission would decide on payment. A committee has been appointed, but has not yet submitted its recommendations.

Epic Lanka claims to have the legal authority to issue passports in Sri Lanka, submitting a letter to this effect, while the Department of Immigration and Emigration denies receiving any such letter. This raises questions about whether the department signed a deal with Epic Lanka as they claim, requiring immediate investigation, Jayagoda said. Currently, “Just in Time” has issued 750,000 passports, and for each passport, a payment of USD 1.45 is due to Epic Lanka. That’s about a million dollars, which is a significant waste of public funds. The government must immediately clarify its position on this issue, says the PSA.

“It is important to note that Epic Lanka has already been accused in a data fraud case linked to the National Medicines Regulatory Authority.