KATHMANDU, JUNE 21
A French technology company is facing backlash in Nepal after what officials describe as a calculated misinformation campaign intended to discredit a lawful public tender process.
IDEMIA Smart Identity, the long-time supplier of Nepal's biometric passports, lost both packages in a recently concluded tender issued by the Department of Passport (DoP). Package 1, for the enrollment system, was awarded to Germany's Muehlbauer, while Package 2, for the supply and personalization of e-passport booklets, went to Veridos, another German firm.
Shortly after the announcement, IDEMIA began raising objections-first through legal channels, and then through the press. In a June 13 letter to The Himalayan Times, Alice Ferre, IDEMIA's press representative, questioned the fairness of the evaluation and suggested that procedural ambiguities may have disadvantaged her firm.
But officials at the DoP, along with procurement experts, are pushing back strongly, calling the allegations unfounded and designed to sow public doubt in an otherwise transparent process.
IDEMIA filed its official complaint on June 12-one week after the Letters of Intent were issued to the winning bidders. In response, the Department of Passport issued a detailed reply on June 16, reaffirming the integrity and fairness of the selection process and dismissing IDEMIA's claims as baseless.
One of the core claims made by IDEMIA involved the bid opening date. Ferre implied that the date was unclear, and that an incorrect exchange rate may have inflated costs unnecessarily.
However, the tender's Instructions to Bidders explicitly identify the bid opening date as the day of submission, a standard practice in international procurement. "This is not a procedural flaw," a government procurement official told THT. "It's a deliberate misrepresentation intended to confuse the public and apply media pressure."
Further controversy surrounds a Cabinet-sanctioned variation order through which IDEMIA delivered 3.1 million passports in 2023, despite its original contract covering just 2 million. The price charged per booklet under the variation-USD 10.13-has raised eyebrows, especially since IDEMIA's new bid offers a price of just USD 6.83.
In her letter to THT, Ferre defended the previous pricing by citing "system upgrades" and additional services. Yet DoP officials point out that upgrades do not constitute a new system and cannot justify such a large price differential. A basic calculation-multiplying 3.1 million booklets by the USD 3.33 overcharge-indicates that Nepal may have overpaid by approximately USD 10.3 million during the variation period.
Call for Transparency
In an effort to verify IDEMIA's claims, THT has requested the company to submit a detailed Bill of Quantities (BoQ), VAT invoices, import documentation, and third-party verification from a government authority to substantiate the "upgrades" it claims were delivered and billed to the Department of Passport while securing the variation order. As of this writing, IDEMIA has not publicly provided any of the requested documentation.
Experts say the case highlights broader issues of accountability in public contracting, particularly concerning the use of variation orders-mechanisms typically reserved for emergency circumstances when continuity of essential services is at risk. "Variation should serve as a cushion to prevent disruption and give the government time to conduct a new procurement-not as a backdoor for inflated supply volumes," said a retired senior civil servant familiar with procurement practices. "When variation volumes are excessive and appear commercially motivated, it raises red flags. More dangerously, any act-deliberate or strategic-that obstructs essential public services or puts the state in a position of weakness for private gain is akin to treason. Such behavior is not only unethical but, under Nepali law, punishable as a crime."
IDEMIA has not responded to multiple requests for comment from this daily.
