The government is set to purchase the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) needed for national identity cards from IN Groupe, France’s state-owned company.
The Council of Ministers meeting decided to purchase the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) through a government-to-government (G2G) arrangement, without competitive bidding. The system, to be procured for around 10 million units, will make it easier to distinguish between individuals’ identities.
ABIS helps store personal records of millions of individuals and detect matches among the stored data. Once personal details for the national ID are collected, this record is used for criminal investigation, personal identification, security, and other purposes. The system contains fingerprint, facial, and eye-retina identification data. The license the government is purchasing will help detect and check this data for duplication.
The proposal prepared by the Department of National ID and Civil Registration was endorsed by the Council of Ministers meeting on June 12. Department Director General Krishna Poudel said approval had been given to obtain a license for 10 million units from IN Groupe, which is wholly owned by the French government’s Ministry of Economy.
According to him, the mandate is to negotiate and sign the contract without exceeding the amount agreed in the fiscal year 2018/19 deal. He said the rate at that time was set at 0.0995 euros per unit, which comes to about Rs 17.49 at the current exchange rate.
The government initially began collecting biometrics and issuing national ID cards for government employees in Taplejung and at Singha Durbar, and later planned to distribute national ID cards to 20 million Nepalis. Director General Poudel said preparations are now underway to obtain a license for about 10 million units from the French company IN Groupe for the remaining roughly 10 million people.
Director General Poudel said that although the contract is with France’s IN Groupe, Idemia, which holds the passport contract, has no role in it. He said the rate is determined through negotiations between government representatives of both countries, with no agent or commission involved, calling some of the circulating claims baseless.
He said, “The company called Idemia is not connected to that process in any way.”
France’s Idemia Group has three main divisions, Idemia Secure Transactions, Idemia Public Security, and Idemia Smart Identity. Idemia Smart Identity, which works on passports, national ID cards, driving licenses, and digital identity solutions, merged into IN Groupe two years ago, and it is from this entity that the government is purchasing ABIS.
The Council of Ministers decided that 1.5 million units would be purchased directly at first, with the remaining 8.5 million to be purchased through the G2G arrangement. After the Council of Ministers’ decision on June 12, government spokesperson Sasmit Pokharel did not comment on the agreement decision.
