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Nepal, Sujata ‘trying to spike MRP deal’
KATHMANDU, AUG 17 -
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala have been accused of standing in the way of Nepal’s dream to adopt Machine Readable Passport (MRP).
Following Koirala’s denial to approve the proposed MRP insignia, Nepal is said to be walking in her footsteps. The Cabinet has delegated the power to approve the MRP design to the prime minister. However, he hasn’t taken any move even in four days.
“He has not approved it,” clarified Bishnu Rijal, press advisor to the prime minister. Nepal’s “non-seriousness” is against what Minister for Information and Communications Shanker Pokhrel had told the Post that it would take 48 hours to “ripe” the Cabinet decision. If Rijal’s comment is anything to go by, it is unlikely that the prime minister will not take the final call within this week.
Foreign Ministry officials had expected that the prime minister would give his decision by Monday or Tuesday. “Now the approval has been delayed by another couple of days,” said a senior official at Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on condition of anonymity.
MoFA mandarins on Tuesday too tried to woo Koirala in their last ditch effort, but to no avail. On the contrary, she dispatched some “controversial documents” related to Park and OPC (the printer of MRP project) to the prime minister for further study.
She has been claiming that the company has no experience of MPR printing in two countries (Ghana and South Korea). According to the MRP bid, a company interested in printing MRP should have at least experience in the similar field in two countries. She has also asked Foreign Secretary Madan Bhattrai to seal the deal with Oberthur first (the French company winning the MRP contract) and then “she will think about approving the design”.
The “dillydallying” of the prime minister has baffled senior government officials. They are worried about two things. One, if the prime minister bypasses his own Cabinet minister, it could set a wrong precedent in the future. “How can a prime minister take such an important decision without the consent of his Cabinet minister?” asked an official, requesting anonymity.
Second, the prime minister will buy time if the minister fails to approve the design. “The MRP issue is Nepal’s image in the international level. The prime minister might be waiting for the minister’s move and may request her once again to approve the insignia. If Sujata turns down the offer, the prime minister may back out at last,” the official added.
Posted on: 2010-08-18 08:05
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