BULAWAYO – A Belgian company linked to bribes-for-tenders in over half-a-dozen countries has been awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to produce biometric passports for Zimbabwe, online tabloid ZimLive reported Monday.
Zimbabwe’s cabinet in May approved the “engagement of a private partner in the implementation of a national biometric database for the production of e-passports, national identity cards and birth certificates.”
Instead of advertising the tender, however, officials in the ministry of home affairs and treasury have handpicked a Belgian company, Semlex, for the contract despite its history of corruption on at least two continents.
A September 2020 investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found that Semlex “used bribes, kickbacks and insider dealing to secure contracts around the world, inflating the cost of vital documents for ordinary citizens while lining the pockets of wealthy elites.”
Its corrupt footprints can be found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, The Gambia, Comoros, Gabon, Chad and Congo-Brazzaville.
Home affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe confirmed the awarding of the contract, but declined to reveal the total cost of the project. Compared to other projects Semlex has undertaken in Africa, it could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Kazembe said last week: “The agreement with Semlex is a BOOT (Build Own Operate Transfer). They offered to do it for the government at no cost to the government.
“The offer was brought to cabinet months ago and was approved by cabinet. They will come, build, deploy the latest technology and operate. They are investing their money and they will recoup from the revenue.
“This will bring a lasting solution to the identity documents challenges as people will be able to apply for these online. The issue of consumables challenges will be a thing of the past.
“However, in-between now and the time when they will be ready to produce the passports, the government will continue producing passports the way we have always done.”
Zimbabwe’s broke government has struggled to raise foreign currency to import passport booklets, creating a backlog of over 250,000.
The government also stopped the issuance of identity cards after failing to import consumables used in their production. Last month, the government fixed new passport prices in United States dollars, with an ordinary passport pegged at US$60.
Semlex’s history in countries where it has taken over passport production shows that passport prices inevitably go up. Kazembe failed to guarantee that passport prices would not go up.
He said: “Prices will be agreed by the ministry of finance and the investor. The citizens will be protected.”
Kazembe declined to disclose the cost of the deal with Semlex, referring all questions to the finance ministry.
“Financial issues are between treasury and the investor,” he maintained.
A spokesman for finance minister Mthuli Ncube said: “I’m not sure the ministry can even divulge such information because contract terms could be confidential in those respects.”
In 2015, the DRC’s budget ministry approved a US$450 million contract with Semlex to supply biometric passports and ID cards for its 70 million citizens.
The passport price went up from US$100 to US$185, making the DRC’s passport among the world’s most expensive, even though its people are on average among the poorest. That deal arranged for US$60 from each passport to go to an obscure Gulf company owned by a close relative of the DRC’s then President Joseph Kabila.
In May last year, the new government of President Felix Tshisekedi said it would not renew the Semlex contract. Prosecutors have been investigating allegations of money laundering and corruption by Semlex.
In 2017, Mozambique terminated a 10-year Semlex contract, potentially worth several hundred million dollars, that had been awarded in 2009 by the country’s previous government.
The deal was struck without an open tender. According to Semlex emails, its employees proposed paying a commission amounting to 20 percent of the price each citizen would have to pay for a passport and 15 percent of the revenue that Semlex received for residence permits issued to foreigners.
- ZimLive
