PETALING JAYA: The
Government has ordered the company appointed to supply passports to buck up or
face action.
Deputy Home Minister
Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said its performance was being reviewed and warned
that action would be taken if it failed to perform its contractual duties.
Newly-appointed Immigration director-general Datuk
Seri Mustafar Ali is also making the shortage of passports his major priority.
Mustafar pledged to resolve the issue as soon as
possible.
“The issuing of passports is one of the department’s
core services to the public. Any hiccup or issue must be dealt with quickly and
effectively so that the public is not inconvenienced,” he said.
Nur Jazlan said the long queues at passport counters
around the country was not the fault of the Immigration Department but that of
the vendor who has failed to meet demand.
“We are reviewing the new vendor’s performance. In the
meantime, we apologise and ask for the public’s patience,” he said.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad
Zahid Hamidi ordered an increase to 20,000 passports daily, to meet the
shortfall. Until then, the vendor was reportedly only providing between 5,000
and 10,000 passports daily.
Percetakan Keselamatan Nasional Sdn Bhd is the current
supplier of the passports while Datasonic Group Bhd is the
principal manufacturer of the chips used on the passports.
The data page holds information on the passport
bearer.
The company imports the biodata polycarbonate data
page which contains the microchip.
Evelyn Wong, 46, was among those who was turned away
at Immigration counters after failing to get a number to renew her passport
which expires in November.
The irate school counsellor, who intended to travel
overseas next month, had arrived at the Kelana Jaya Immigration office at
6.50am yesterday, only to see a queue stretching to the car park.
“I am not happy with the Immigration Department’s
crowd management procedures,” said Wong.
She also said there was a couple, whose passports
expire in June next year, in the queue ahead of her.
She said it showed that the public was so afraid of
delays that they were coming to renew their passports well ahead of time.
Ajeet Kaur, 36, from Taman Medan, also had a similar
problem when she tried to renew her son’s passport at the Kelana Jaya and Shah
Alam Immigration offices recently.
“We were told they had run out of passports and
couldn’t say when new stock would come in,” she said.
Checks around the country showed that the problem was
largely in the Klang Valley. Passports were being issued as usual in Johor and
Penang.
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