[ad_1]
By Martha Chikoti
The Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiative (CDEDI) has called on Malawians of good will to rise above partisan politics and defend the credibility of the Malawi passport.
Speaking to the press in Lilongwe, the Executive Director of CDEDI, Sylvester Namiwa, said restoring the credibility of Malawi’s passport would help save taxpayers’ money which was being wasted due to highly insensitive and costly decisions taken by some selfish individuals.
He said his organisation immediately asked the Malawi government to put aside its pride and reconsider the Techno Brain assessment report and restore the original system within a month at a cost of no more than US$3 million (K5.1 billion) instead of procuring a new system which would cost no less than US$40 million (K69 billion) considering it had already spent US$46 million (K79.6 billion).
“It should also be stressed that all the hardware of the system is intact at all passport printing centres, namely Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Mangochi. Therefore, the people of Malawians need to stand up and force the government to wake up and act in the best interest of all and not the selfish interests of a few, otherwise, we will be forced into the inevitable protests,” he said.
Namiwa believes that the current artificial passport crisis is simply a serious human rights violation that has gone on unnecessarily for too long and has ultimately turned into a huge international shame.
He therefore urged the authorities to swallow their pride and invite Techo Brain to reinstall passport issuance systems with intact infrastructure in all passport issuance centres.
The CDEDI executive director stressed that the printing of Malawi passports falls within the purview of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services and therefore does not require a new passport issuance system.
Namiwa however threw down a challenge to some greedy Malawians who have brought chaos to the Immigration Department who can still make black money by providing passport books, ink, ribbons and crystals when the system is running smoothly, instead of disrupting the system and bringing the country to a standstill.
“Not to mention the fact that more black money could be earned by setting up a passport issuance system parallel to the existing passport issuance system”.
According to Namiwa, CDEDI made the decision after its findings revealed that the Malawi government was procuring a new passport supplier, an exercise that would cost taxpayers no less than US$40 million (K69 billion).
In order not to waste taxpayers’ money, CDEDI suggested that the Malawi government should put aside its pride and allow Techno Brain to restore the system at a cost of no more than US$3 million (about K5.1 billion).
When we asked the government spokesperson, Moses Kumkuyu, to clarify the status of the current passport issuance system, the government has yet to respond.
In February 2019, the Malawi government through the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services (DoICS) engaged Techno Brain to upgrade the Passport Issuance System (PIS) and launch the electronic passport (e-passport) under a three-year Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement valued at US$60.8 million (approximately K105 billion).
[ad_2]
Source link
