Cabinet Spokesman Minister Vijitha Herath said that the passport issue has now been resolved with some 50,000 passports set to arriving in Sri Lanka this week.
“The passport issue was created by the previous government,” he said, addressing the Cabinet Media briefing.
“As I mentioned earlier, a tender was called for the e-passport, which itself was problematic and not delivered on time. Eventually, in order to obtain the same old passports, an order was placed with the same company that had been contracted for the e-passports, without a call for tenders. This prompted the old passport-issuing company to take legal action against the decision,” the Minister explained.
Herath said that the government had to take great efforts to resolve the issue, especially in consultation with the Attorney General’s Department.
“The new company contracted to issue passports does not have the license to print passports, which was only held by the previous company,” he said.
“A batch of approximately 7,500 passports arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday, and another batch of 42,000 passports is expected to arrive on Wednesday (23),” Minister Herath said, adding that public will soon be able to obtain their passports.
“We urge the public to remain calm,” he said assuring them that there will be no passport shortage in the future. “Within the week, we will have brought in 50,000 passports. By mid-November, another 100,000 passports will arrive,’” he said.
The Minister stated that a total of 750,000 passports will be brought to Sri Lanka, urging the public not to rush to the passport office, and assured them there will be no shortage in the future.
The post New Passports : Minister updates new situation appeared first on Newswire.