The contract signed between the Congolese government and Belgium based company Semlex Group, for the manufacturing of Congolese passports, will expire in less than a month. Civil society groups are now calling for the 5 year contract not to be renewed.
The terms and conditions of the contract have been widely criticised, with the argument that the government (more especially the Congolese people) were robbed of a better deal.
Grievances have mainly been around the exorbitant pricing of the passports, with a single passport being charged at a price of USD185. Worse off, applicants end up paying USD260 after additional service charges are added.
It also emerged that as far as the contract is concern, the government only retains USD65 from the USD185.
An investigation conducted by news agency Reuters in 2017, further revealed how a company belonging to a friend of former President Joseph Kabila benefits from the deal, by receiving USD60 from each passport printed.
Other concerns raised against the contract signed between the government and Semlex is the fact that procurement procedures were never followed, such as Article 130 of the Public Procurement Act which requires that tender proposals be advertised and made public. The law also makes it a requirement that contracts be given a code number to verify their authencity, something that was not the case in this process.
After coming to power, President Felix Tshisekedi promised to reduced the cost of obtaining a passport at USD50; during his visit to Europe he even met with the CEO of Semlex Group Albet Karaziwan and discussions were held to work towards fulfilling this promise. However after more than a year in office since Tshisekedi came to power nothing has changed.
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