There has been a lot of hue and cry over the Sierra Leone passport as to whether it is biometric or not, as well as confusion over who issues it.
This confusion and misinterpretation by people who are bent on painting the company in a bad light prompted Netpage to make the following clarification Netpage is operating as the financier, while the company that prints the passport is HID.
Thus, it is a tripartite arrangement, with the government on the one part providing the design of the passport they want HID to print, Netpage providing the finance and HID doing the printing. Netpage buys the books and delivers them to the Chief Immigration Officer, who is the custodian of the passports and when needed, the HID is then directed to print them. About the biometric status of the passports, there has been no complaint from the government, and the contract was renewed, indicating that the government is satisfied with the products. While people like Bernard Conteh and others are questioning the scientific aspects of the passport, they lack the requisite expertise to determine that the passport is not biometric, and are merely assuming that their conjectures are right.
The travelling public using these passports has not come forward to say that they have been set apart in any country based on the biometric nature of the passports. On the contrary, many confirmed through a program aired on Epic Radio on Tuesday 30th April that they have had no problem accessing immigration in other countries with the Sierra Leone passports. It is therefore not true that people are being taken out of line for the quality of their passports.
The Internal Affairs Ministry gave its approval for the quality of the passport and has not complained about any embarrassment on the international stage. Currently, there are ongoing arrangements to decentralize the issuing of passports, with offices in the district headquarters towns yet to be provided. Netpage will have to spend over $2 million for the expansion process as well as the opening of new stations in and out of Sierra Leone. There are also plans to provide the same service to Sierra Leoneans living in the USA and UK, to enable them to renew their passports without having to come to Sierra Leone. Bernard Conteh and cohorts should do their homework well before making any judgement on the passports.
