Opinion: Solve MRP problem soon, or face forex slump

Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosts around 4.5 million Bangladeshi expatriates. Of them, three million Bangladeshi workers are facing uncertainty over failure to convert their manual passports into machine readable ones.

Their old passports will lose validity as travel documents from November 24. Instead of getting job extension, the old passport holders may be deported from these countries.

If a large number of these foreign exchange earners lose jobs just because they did not have machine readable passports (MRPs), Bangladesh economy would face a blow that it does not deserve.

But the government has not yet taken the right initiative to solve the problem.

Issuance of passport was always plagued with corruption, mismanagements and irregularities.

When the MRP was introduced in 2010, it was expected that the problems will be over. The government solved the problem with a short-cut: engaging some army officials for the management.

Did it solve the problem? No. The hotchpotch situation in Saudi Arabia, UAE or Malaysia stand as a proof.

The problems with the MRPs started with the selection of a Malaysian company Iris as the supplier of the technology. But the Iris soon proved to be an unprofessional and inefficient vendor that did not follow its contractual obligations. The company not only failed to live up to its expectation, but it also disrupted the government plan to expand the MRP services from various towns of the country.

The contract with Iris ended in 2012. As it had failed to fulfill contractual obligations, it was given another two years extension. But that period expired a year ago-- and yet the government could not make its MRP delivery system independent and fully functional.

All the while, the government acted like it has remained a hostage to Iris' whims. The Iris is still there without a valid contract, making decisions on its own-- with the government telling it nothing for its wrong-doings. The Iris is still handling issuance of MRP in Malaysia, UAE and Saudi Arabia-- from where foreign officials have lodged complaints of widespread irregularities of Iris.

One can question how can a foreign firm be so defiant? The answer is: Iris has become a Frankenstein due to the utter failure of management that resorted to persuading Iris to do it right when it is doing wrong-- instead of punishing it.

The state minister for home and senior secretary of the home ministry did not play their role that aggravated the MRP problem further. Then the prime minister involved and assigned expatriates welfare minister and PMO secretary to resolve the issue and make sure all expatriates get MRP. Both tried but failed to manage IRIS. Now all are waiting for an impending disaster.

Nobody in the government seems interested to take the responsibility and resolve the problem. In the name of inaugurating MRP services, high officials including the state minister for home are making "foreign visits" to Europe and the USA instead of going to Saudi Arabia or the UAE. It looks like they are enjoying pleasure trips.

What is the point of physically inaugurating MRP services in Europe or the USA? If the officials want it so bad, they can follow the example of the Prime Minister who often inaugurates various projects through video conference. Through video conference, Sheikh Hasina recently inaugurated development projects outside Dhaka sitting at her office latest of which was opening of 133-km double line track on the Dhaka-Chittagong last month. She holds regular video conference with the local administration, and all that save time and money.

If the prime minister can do it, why can't her ministers or the officials?

Crores have been spent in the name of MRP inauguration in 60 countries. They amount could have been saved had the followed the PM's policy.

The damage is already done. But the government must take the MRP issue seriously to reduce the toll and try to issue MRP for all the expatriates within the deadline. The expatriates are sending about $1.2 billion each month. Any delay or negligence in this regard will only be disastrous for the expatriates and the country as well.

For this, the government should take hardline against the unruly company (canceling contracts and blacklisting), and fast increase capacity of the foreign missions in the countries to issue as many as MRP possible. If necessary, changes in the project management office, also.