Deputy PM Sujata Koirala (File photo)

Deputy Prime
Minister (DPM) and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sujata Koirala, is learnt to
have expressed serious dissatisfaction over her own ministry to award the
printing contract of Machine Readable Passports (MRP) Oberthur Technologies, a
French company.

Koirala today sought explanations from the ministry's top
officials including foreign secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai and chief of
protocol Mukti Nath Bhatta over the decision on the MRP contract.

She
reportedly accused the ministry's MRP evaluation team of putting national
security at risk by awarding the printing contract of Machine Readable Passports
(MRP) to the French company.

However, officials made it clear to her that
they were unable to disclose every detail furnished yesterday while finalising
the bid as the matter was of high confidentiality.

The ministry's
officials informed Koirala that they could only disclose the set objectives, but
Koirala ruled out their explanations, saying that she has every right to see all
those documents.

DPM Koirala, who was compelled to withdraw her earlier
decision to award MPR bid to an Indian company following massive pressure from
all sectors, has been expressing that India must shoulder the task of printing
MRP copies.

However, unlike what Koirala had expected, neither Indian nor
Chinese companies contested for the MRP bid when the ministry opened tender on
May 18. nepalnews.com