The French and US governments are disputing the tender called by the Dominican Passports Agency (DGP) has excluded leading international providers without due reason. The French government press that prints passports for 130 countries around the world is among the providers that were excluded from participating in the passport tender.
The government of France through its Dominican embassy has expressed its concern for the “unjustified and contradictory disqualification” of the requirements requested for the Exception Process Passports-CCC-PEEX-2023-0001, for the contracting of services for Dominican passports, carried out by the Passports Agency (DGP).
Eleven companies participated in the tender of which two were chosen. There is speculation there may be ties among these two winners.
The DGP tender committee chose Transneg, SRL and Midas Dominicana, S.A.C as the winners of the tender PASAPORTES-CCC-PEEX-2023-0001.
JL Editora, SRL, Identificaciones, JMB, SRL, GSI Internacional INC, Veridos GMBH, Nara, SRL, Inversiones Tuira, SRL, Canadian Bank Note Company, Limited, Copel SP, Grupo Globus, SRL, Midas Dominicana, Transnec, SRL were the participants in the tender.
The lawyer of the French National Printing Office in the Dominican Republic, José Gregorio Cabrera, is heading the effort to legally contest the tender.
Investigative journalists Eduardo Sanchez Tolentino (El Piro) and Ricardo Ripoll of Somos Pueblo question why a tender is being held for a mechanical passport when most of the world is moving on to biometric passports.
El Piro and Ricardo Ripoll denounced that the company favored by the Dominican Passport Agency has several violations of security and technical requirements. The investigators also say the passport bids could be overpriced.
The French National Government (Grupo Globus) and Nara, S.R.L., (representing HID Global of the United States) protested the tender that would award the printing of 1,050,000 notebooks.
Somos Pueblo reporters explained an audit carried out by a US company reveals several technical and security violations in the Dominican passport sourced from Mida, the present supplier of passports and winner of a new batch of passports. This is the same company that has left the country without passports and forced the country to extend the validity of expired passports.
Ricardo Ripoll said issuing passports is a national security matter. He protested that the same company that had left the country without passports is now getting a new contract.
Somos Pueblo presented a press release where the director Digna Reynoso gives details of the winning provider well before the envelops of the bid were opened.
The director of the passport agency is the wife of Alfredo Pacheco, president of the Chamber of Deputies.
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31 May 2023