President asks to halt border control system
Posted by DhiRajje asia, breakingnews, business, feature, maldives 2:52 AM
According to the President’s Office, the president asked Immigration Controller Ilyas Hussein Ibrahim to follow Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)’s order to halt the project being carried out with Malaysia’s Nexbis Limited to develop the border control system.
In the note sent to Controller Ilyas, President Nasheed said all the government authorities should respect ACC, which is an independent legal body.
President Nasheed earlier requested government authorities to follow ACC’s orders to delay or halt a project carried out by the authority.
ACC earlier ordered the department to halt the project claiming that the department handled the project in a way that could lead to corruption. However, the department said it would not stop the project unless asked by the president.
President’s Office said last evening that President Nasheed does not believe that the project involves corruption.
Immigration Department signed a 20-year build, operate, and transfer (BOT) concession contract with Malaysia’s Nexbis Limited on October 17, 2010.
Under the Rf500 million project, an electronic border gate system would be established in Male International Airport. The system will be equipped with fingerprint technology to identify the immigrants and an integrated system, which would provide instant access to travel document records, passport, and visa and fingerprint database.
The government should repay the initial investment of the system which would cost about US$39 million (Rf501 million) within 20 years. A US$2 fee is to be charged from every foreigner entering the country and US$15 has to be paid for work visa.
Nexbis is required to pay five percent of its profit to the government as royalty.
