Nepalese prime minister stirs controversy after ID verification assigned to his company

Nepal’s national identity card project is in the midst of a controversy after a contract to verify data from biometric IDs was assigned to a company owned by Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The legal basis for the project was rejected April 18 after Nepal’s Cabinet began a probe into the tender. The contract for verifying the collected data has allegedly been assigned to Schema Technology, which is owned by Dahal and led by its managing director Prakash Rayamajhi, Nepalese newspaper Nagarik Daily reports.

According to sources cited by the paper, the project was paused after Rayamajhi’s intervention. He, however, has denied foul play, claiming the story is unsubstantiated. Rayamajhi was appointed as a consultant February 13.

The Nagarik Daily article says the move may have been an attempt to exclude private authentication service firms from the national ID card project. Current Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayankaji Shrestha has unsuccessfully attempted to ban private companies from participating in the project in the past, according to Nagarik Daily.

The ID verification project implemented by the Department of National ID and Civil Registration (DoNIDCR) was begun in December. It was halted April 18, after the Nepalese officials formed a panel to investigate the tender, which some felt showed a lack of a competitive bidding.

Only one company bid — Advantage International, a local holding of Idemia. The government has decided to terminate the company’s contract and has seized the security deposit of the firm, the Kathmandu Post reported.

Advantage International was previously awarded five other projects by the Department of the National Identity Card and Civil Registration. The recent contract was issued by former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, who was in charge of shortening the notice to seven days and approved the contract the day before his departure from office.

Government officials have also raised privacy questions. Shrestha says that the contract was awarded without analyzing how the company in question would protect citizens’ private information and national security.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID cards  |  government purchasing  |  national ID  |  Nepal  |  Schema Technology