KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court has upheld the decision to award a disputed passport printing contract to German companies.
The Department of Passports had signed contracts last year with German companies Mühlbauer ID Services GmbH for Package 1 and Veridos GmbH for Package 2.
French competitor IDEMIA Identity and Security had challenged the procurement process through the Public Procurement Monitoring Office and later filed a case at the Supreme Court.
A joint bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Shreekanta Poudel dismissed all three writ petitions filed by IDEMIA, ruling that the decision to award the contracts to the German companies was valid.
The department had signed a contract worth Rs 8.063 billion for the printing and management of 6.4 million electronic passports over five years.
The procurement process had faced allegations that the contracts were awarded in violation of public procurement regulations and internal standards at the direction of then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Foreign Minister Arzu Rana.
Following the March election and the formation of a government led by Rastriya Swatantra Party leader Balendra Shah, steps had been taken to cancel the contract. The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority later filed a corruption case at the Special Court against Department of Passports Director General Tirtha Raj Aryal and other officials, alleging irregularities in the procurement process.
The German government had previously expressed concern over allegations linking its companies to corruption. In June, Germany’s Foreign Ministry summoned Nepal’s acting ambassador Sagar Prasad Phuyal and reportedly handed him a diplomatic note urging Nepal not to damage the reputation of its companies.
The Supreme Court’s latest ruling has effectively ended the legal dispute over the contract and dealt a setback to efforts to cancel the agreement.
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