Malaysian pioneering biometric passport: if it isn't broken, don't fix it

Before I read about the real situation, I commented on this on August 9 in Facebook:

I commended the dept before for its efficiency. Wonder what happened. Hope it is not because of a political decision to change supplier. Sometimes if it is not broken don't fix it.

So I guessed right about the change in supplier...

Passport fiasco: Who to blame?

'Wikipedia wrote:

Malaysia was the first country in the world to issue biometric passports in March 1998, after a local company, IRIS Corporation, developed the technology.[3] In December 2002, thumbprint data was added to the biometric data on the passport chip. Similar technology is used in the Malaysian identity card, MyKad.'

 'Iris was given the contract to supply after developing the technology. However, in early 2015, Iris contract was up for renewal and there was a tussle for it. Focus Malaysia reported:

Battle for lucrative government contracts ...'

' It would not be a surprise that the lobby for the contract would have raised the issue in the Bloomberg report and lay various other complains on Iris's system. By December, The Star reported the following:

Tuesday, 15 December 2015 | MYT 3:46 PM

Datasonic wins RM319mil contract to supply M'sian passport chips 

KUALA LUMPUR: Datasonic Group Bhd has clinched a RM318.75mil contract from the Government for the supply of Malaysian passport chips.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Datasonic said its wholly owned subsidiary, Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd (DTSB), had accepted the letter of award (LOA) from the Home Affairs Ministry for the supply of passport chips.

The contract is for a period of five years from Dec 1, 2016 to Nov 30, 2021 for the provision of 12.5 million passport chips.

Read on here.

That takes off Iris off the blame for the current fiasco. The supplier for the Malaysian passport chip today is Datasonic. They are supposed to be able to supply 12.5 million chips but why only 500 a day?

Iris can claim that when they were the one supplying the chips, there was no problem and within an hour passport are issued.'

Rest of the article:
http://anotherbrickinwall.blogspot.my/2016/08/passport-fiasco-who-to-blame.html#more

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