Joseph admits glitch in passport contract

He was replying to a motion on the adjournment of the Senate brought by UNC Senator Wade Mark on Thursday. Mark had claimed that the tender process had been tampered with after the award of the contract to allow the successful bidder, Canadian Banknote Company, to revise its bid. The new terms, said Mark, included the additional items of “additional functionalities” and “any other relevant points for consideration.” Mark speculated that these two items may have substantially raised the final price of the contract.

“I call on the Minister of National Security to launch a forensic audit investigation.” Mark sought to link the tender issue to a recent Auditor General’s Report which he claimed had said 2,300 passports issued by the New York Consulate cannot be accounted for.

In reply, Joseph said Mark was wrong to try to link the two issues. He said the tender issue had arose three years ago.

“There were some improprieties in the award of the contract and we took it from the Ministry of National Security and sent it to the Central Tenders Board. Of the three companies (bidding), one was lobbying every Tom, Dick and Harry to try to get the contract.”

Joseph denied Mark’s claim that the passports issued in New York were unaccounted for. Joseph read a letter to him from the chief immigration officer addressing the auditor general’s concerns.

He said confusion had arisen not from any malfeasance but from merely deficiencies in record-keeping at the consulate brought about by increasing demand for consular services which he then read out. Joseph assured: “The log book is now up to date.”

He quoted the letter which said consulate staff had not registered all issued passports immediately and that “all so-called missing passports have been accounted for.”

The Senate then adjourned until July 18.