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Foreign Minister Sujata Not Happy with MRP contract
By KTM Metro Reporter
July 8, 2010: Minister For Foreign Affairs Sujata Koirala has asked Secretary to the Foreign Ministry Madan Kumar Bhattarai and Chief of Protocol Mukti Nath Bhatta for the details about the decision made on awarding the contract for printing machine-readable passports (MRPs) on July 07, 2010 according to the local news report.
After the resignation of Prime Minister Madhav Nepal on June 30, 2010, Chief Secretary to the Council of Ministers had told the secretaries to various ministries not to make any decisions on any subject matters under the pressure of the officiating ministers. So, high-ranking officials of the Foreign Ministry might not entertain the instructions of Minister Sujata Koirala.
In January 2010, Sujata Koirala had cancelled the international bids for printing MRPs and then she awarded the contract for printing MRPs to the Indian state-run company unilaterally. The Madhav government had cancelled the contract given to the Indian company after the pressure from the various quarters particularly the opposition political parties.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has awarded the contract for printing MRPs to a French company recently. This is the third time; the government had awarded such a contract.
Following the deadline set by the International Civil Aviation organization, the government needed to issue MRPs starting on April 01, 2010 but the Madhav Government had been unable to do so due to the tendency of ministers seeking kickbacks from any deals they make.
