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| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Momodou |
Posted - 15 Apr 2025 : 18:46:59
PUBLIC STATEMENT
EFSCRJ Demands Transparency on the Issue of Passports and National Documents
We have received information that the cost of the national passport will increase from D3060 to D5100 by May 1, 2025, and passport services will be decentralized. While we welcome the decentralization of passport services, we are concerned about the cost and duration of the passport. Our concern stems from the history of passport services as well as the status of other national documents for which we demand transparency and accountability from the Government.
Our research has shown that the Government was producing Gambian biometric passports locally at the Immigration Department under the GAMBIS system. This changed in 2013 when the Government went into a 15-year contract with a Spanish company, Zetes under a BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) arrangement. Zetes then subcontracted the project to what it calls its local partner, Africard, and the first biometric passport was delivered in December 2013.
On their website Zetes said they, “will also deliver an automated identity control eGate at the airport border. According to the company, this is the first time it has deployed this kind of technology.”
We have sought to locate the offices and website of Africard to no avail. Similarly, there is no website for GAMBIS nor is it mentioned on the website of the Gambia Immigration Department or the Ministry of Interior. We also note that there is on ongoing contract with Securiport which is operating at our airport, and recently media reports indicate another contract with a Ghanaian company, Margins Group to produce our national documents.
For purposes of transparency and accountability, EF Small Centre is interested to know why the Government went into a contract with Securiport in 2019 when Zetes claimed their ongoing contract with the Government included providing “eGate at the border airport.”
Meanwhile the Auditor General had reviewed the award of the contract to Securiport in 2020 and concluded that it was illegal as it was “an unsolicited proposal without regard to competitive tendering.”
At the same time EFSCRJ also found that the Government of Japan had provided a multimillion-dollar funding to the Gambia Immigration Department in 2024 under a project dubbed, 'enhancing border management capacities of the Gambia Government to promote peace, stability and security.’ Under the project, a ceremony was held at Kerr Ali in March 2024 for the laying of a foundation stone for the construction of a $2.2 million border post which also includes Amdalaye and Giboro border posts as well.
In light of the foregoing, EFSCRJ hereby requests the Government to provide full information to Gambians as to the contracts, purposes, status and scope as well as the relationships or interconnection of the following contracts, services and companies:
1. Zetes/Africard project signed in 2013 and its contract
2. Securiport contract signed in 2019
3. Margins Group contract purportedly signed in 2024/25
4. Japanese support to immigration project launched in 2024
5. GAMBIS system existing before 2014.
Finally, EF Small Centre wishes to state that the cost and five-year duration of the passport need review. We are of the view that D5100 is too high a cost for which the Government has not provided any justification. We maintain that the passport should remain at its present cost or further reduced.
We further request a review of the Immigration Act to revise the duration of the passport from 5 to 10 years. Five years is a short duration which imposes unnecessary inconvenience as well as inadvertently increasing the cost of the passport.
In this regard, we urge the Government to review the contracts with Zetes/Africard, Securiport and Margins Group with a view to terminating them for the following objectives:
1. To nationalize the production of all national documents – birth certificate, national ID card, ID card for foreign nationals, voter’s cards, driver’s license and passport. Not only will such an approach guarantee the security of these documents, but it also builds national capacity while preventing unnecessary and avoidable delays, as well as ensure their affordability.
2. To develop the capacity of the Immigration Department, the police and other security services to provide effective border security management functions. The responsibility for the security of the borders of the country including our airports, seaports and land borders should be the primary and sole function of national security institutions.
3. Rebuild and operationalise GAMBIS system for the management and production of national documents.
4. Giving the production of national documents as well as the security of our borders to foreign businesses undermines national security as well as weakens the capacity of our institutions. An example of this became evident when Semlex left leaving a vacuum that took several months before the Government could resume the production of national ID cards and driver’s license among others.
5. Prevent illegality and economic loss to the country due to bribery and corruption as evidenced in the way and manner the Securiport contracted was awarded.
2025: The Year of Transparency and Accountability |
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