"National identity card is a massive issue. It has serious implication all over," Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman told the press emerging from the purchase committee meeting he chaired.

The home ministry also placed at the meeting a hurriedly framed draft law that proposes making NID mandatory for every citizen. The draft was made as a supporting legal document for the massive MRP and NID programme.

But the purchase body rejected the draft law saying that sending the draft to it is not relevant.

"The ID card issue was not there in the proposal to the prime minister (which was approved on October 16, 2004 and served as the basis of the home ministry move on MRP). I told them (home ministry officials at the meeting) it cannot be done in this manner. They said they have also brought the relevant draft law. But I said we must first read this law and then take opinions on it. This is why we have closed this chapter," Saifur said.

The home ministry last year floated a tender in which 34 companies showed interest but only four got short-listed. The ministry selected German company Giesecke and Devrient (G&D) GmbH without getting the bid evaluated by any internationally reputed consultant in the field.

The finance minister was not happy with the selection process.

"We don't approve awarding such a job to just one company," Saifur told the press.

The home ministry also did not have the project processed through the finance ministry or get any clearance though the project is supposed to be funded under the revenue budget. As a result, the selected bidder --G&D GmbH-- itself became confused about its fate.

"It appears that the project (home ministry terms it a programme) is being pushed ahead only in the interest of a business lobby having political connection with the highest level. This lobby just wants commission from the German company," said a well placed source.

"This lobby plans to get its commission by taking the deal to an agreement level at the fastest possible pace by ignoring regular procedures. It is not really interested in implementation of the project."

A heated debate took place at the purchase committee meeting yesterday. All the committee members felt that a project demanding such a huge spending cannot be placed for approval this way.

"The members noted that in the past, the Election Commission had taken an initiative to issue voters' ID card. The project was shelved after wastage of a lot of public money. From this experience, we need to seriously think about going for another ID card venture," said a source who was present at the meeting.

" Some members of the committee said if this scheme is approved, a vested interest lobby will just drain out the money without delivering the products," he added.

Regarding the draft law on NID card, the cabinet committee observed that this draft has no merit since it was not framed in the appropriate process. The cabinet needs to discuss the ID card issue because it is so important, and determine how it will be funded. The cabinet should first give a decision, and then the law ministry will frame a draft law. The draft will undergo review and exchange of opinion on it. The home ministry cannot arbitrarily push ahead an ID card project on its own, the members said at the meeting.

The committee was agreeable to MRP. But when members started questioning home ministry officials about various cost components of the project, they failed to give satisfactory answers. "It seemed that they have no clear idea about what they want to achieve through this project," a meeting source noted.

The committee directed the home ministry to give a breakdown of the cost of each component of the MRP project. It also asked the ministry to determine the cost of first phase of the project since it would be wise for the government to fund the whole scheme phase-wise.

The home ministry proposed that in the first phase, the contractor will provide 50 lakh passports and necessary hardware, software, local and foreign manpower and consumables to the immigration and passport department. The offices to be covered in this phase are its head office in Dhaka, national issuance centre, its offices in six divisional headquarters and 12 district headquarters.

At yesterday's meeting, Saifur expressed his surprise at how the home ministry selected one German company only. He noted that at first there was 34 companies, yet the ministry selected only four and finally one. He said a single company does not have the expertise to cover all aspects of the MRP, therefore many companies should be involved in it.

Sources mentioned that in conceiving and estimating the components of such a sophisticated technical project, the home ministry did not hire any internationally reputed consultant. Most of the concepts were prepared by bureaucrats and an IT consultant hired by the ministry.

The IT consultant, friend of a powerful minister's son, is a Bangladeshi American and he was illegally given a monthly fee of Tk 3 lakh tax-free. The home ministry argues that he was given tax-free payment to avoid double taxation but rules demand that anyone generating local income should pay tax locally.

Another source pointed out that the home ministry also ignored the International Organisation on Migration (IOM), a United Nations body that deals with immigration issues. The IOM is helping different countries to introduce machine-readable passport and visa, and is working in Bangladesh for the last two years for this purpose.

With a foreign ministry official heading the IOM as resident representative, this UN body held a workshop and participated in the exercises of the home ministry on this issue. Though it was willing to assist the home ministry on this scheme, the ministry simply ignored it.