Passport printing problems in BiH again

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Citizens of BiH could again be left without passport booklets because their procurement is questionable due to complications in the procurement process initiated by the Agency for Identification Documents, Data Records and Exchange of BiH (IDDEEA).

IDDEEA announced the procurement of passport booklet forms back at the end of April this year, but it was annulled after appeals from companies Sirius and Thales DIS France, and only at the end of August.

At the beginning of September, the Agency announced a new procurement, stipulating that the deadline for receiving bids is October 25, but Thales DIS France again filed an appeal against this tender, although this time the BiH Appeals Review Office rejected it.

Due to the latest appeal on the tender documentation, IDDEEA has extended the deadline for submitting and opening bids for the procurement of passport booklets until December 27, reports Capital.

Given that the procurement process for booklets had to be suspended due to the appeals filed, the procurement has been extended from the end of April to the end of December, and if any of the bidders file another appeal, the process could be further prolonged, making it almost certain that citizens of BiH will be left without new passports.

It is important to note that the contract for the supply of passport booklets that IDDEEA currently has is valid until March of next year, and if it does not conclude a new one by then, citizens will not be able to replace old and obtain new travel documents.

Otherwise, IDDEEA is requesting 255,000 booklets for next year, while it needs 345,000 booklets for 2023. A year later, this number increases to 465,000, and for 2025, the delivery of 535,000 booklets is requested. Citizens fear that the scenario from 2017 could be repeated, when IDDEEA spent the entire year procuring passport booklets precisely because of constant appeal procedures.

In that year, 2017, due to the inability to conduct the tender, citizens of BiH were without passports for a period because IDDEEA could not deliver passports to citizens who requested them within the legally prescribed period of one month.

After that problem and the delay in issuing passports, IDDEEA was forced to conduct a negotiated procedure and signed a new one-year contract with the company Muehlbauer, which had been procuring passport booklets until then. That contract expired in March 2018.

The Agency for Identification Documents, Data Records and Exchange of BiH and the company Muehlbauer signed a contract for the procurement of passport booklets in Banja Luka in March 2018. The value of the contract, which is valid for 4 years, amounted to 28.47 million KM.

Therefore, it expires in March of this year. Citizens are left to hope that the authorities will resolve the new contract in a timely manner and that they will not be "trapped" in BiH due to the expiration of existing passports.