Contract signed for biometric passports

THE COMMERCIAL contracts for the supply of biometric passports by German company Bundesdruckerei GmbH (BDR) were signed yesterday at the offices of Civil Registry and Migration Department (CRMD) head Anni Shakalli.

The €4.9 million contract was finalised after the Tenders Review Authority announced two weeks ago that it had rejected an appeal lodged by a competing bidder against the decision to award the contract to BDR, one of the world’s leading suppliers of systems for secure ID.

The second tendering process – launched in February 2008 – followed a bureaucratic fiasco surrounding the first tendering process launched in 2006. This was won by a subsidiary of BDR, but was finally cancelled after legal wrangling and accusations of mismanagement.

Cyprus is obliged under EU law to comply with the harmonised introduction of biometric identifiers in passports of EU citizens, which is designed to ensure that the identity of the holder can easily be established and to protect against identity fraud.

As well as containing the usual details, biometric passports – also known as e-passports – have a microchip capable of storing an individual’s fingerprints, iris scan, facial image, other biometric data and electronic signature.

The first biometric Cypriot passports are expected to be issued in six months’ time. The deadline for changing over to the new-style passports is 2012, but current passports without biometric data will remain valid for travelling for most countries until then.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.