KATHMANDU, MAY 28
After a 15-year-long monopoly by the French tech firm IDEMIA, Germany's Muehlbauer and Veridos have unseated the company as Nepal's primary suppliers of biometric passport systems. In a surprising upset during the Department of Passport's (DoP) latest international tender, the German duo emerged with the lowest combined bid-despite structural obstacles allegedly designed to favor the incumbent.
IDEMIA, formerly Morpho, has dominated Nepal's e-passport infrastructure since its inception. But on Tuesday, the Department of Passport's financial opening of bids signaled a significant shift.
For Package I, which covers enrollment systems and IT infrastructure, Muehlbauer offered a bid of $ 11.6 million, undercutting IDEMIA's $ 17.5 million by a wide margin. Even after applying a controversial cross-discount clause-widely viewed by procurement observers as tailored to benefit IDEMIA-the French firm's adjusted price of $ 13.04 million still fell short of Muehlbauer's offering.
In Package II, which involves the supply and printing of 6.4 million passport booklets, Veridos posted the lowest compliant bid at $ 43.95 million, beating IDEMIA's full bid of $ 50.16 million and its discounted dual-package bid of $ 43.76 million. A Polish contender, PWPW, bid $ 49.6 million, while Muehlbauer's $ 46.44 million proposal was disqualified for a technical lapse-failure to submit an offer letter.
Together, Muehlbauer and Veridos presented a combined price of $ 55.11 million, edging out IDEMIA's cross-discounted package total of USD 56.80 million. This represents a savings of $ 1.7 million for Nepal's government.
The pricing dynamics further reveal startling discrepancies. IDEMIA previously charged the government $ 10.13 per booklet through a variation order awarded without competitive bidding. In this tender, IDEMIA's undiscounted booklet price was $ 10.57, reduced to $ 8.87 with discounts. Veridos, by contrast, offered a booklet price of just $ 6.88, contributing to the combined per-booklet cost with Muehlbauer coming down to $ 8.61.
Sources within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs credit Foreign Minister Arzoo Rana Deuba and Foreign Secretary Amrit Rai for standing firm against attempts to sway the process. Their insistence on transparency and strict adherence to competitive bidding standards reportedly helped shield the tender from manipulation.
Procurement experts and cybersecurity analysts have since called for a thorough investigation into IDEMIA's past dealings, citing excessive costs and opaque pricing mechanisms in previous years. Anti-corruption watchdogs are now demanding both domestic and international scrutiny into how IDEMIA maintained such a stronghold over the DoP for over a decade.
With the results out -Muehlbauer for the enrollment and IT systems, Veridos for the printing and supply-the pressure shifts to performance. Both German firms are expected to deliver not just cost efficiency but also technological reliability and service quality.
For the first time in years, Nepal's passport procurement system is poised for structural reform. Whether it will now serve the public with improved transparency and value remains to be seen.
