Datasonic inks RM54mil deal to supply M'sian passport data pages

People queueing in line to renew their passports at the Home Affairs Ministry Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory (KL FT) Complex at Jalan Duta yesterday.

KUALA LUMPUR: Datasonic Group Bhd, which is taking over Percetakan Keselamatan Nasional Sdn Bhd’s (PKN) role as the main contractor by printing and supplying Malaysian international passports from Dec 1, has been given a conditional contract to supply a minimum of 2 million polycarbonate data pages with chips for RM54.06mil.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the company said its unit Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd inked a supply and purchase agreement (SPA) with PKN on Thursday to supply the data pages for a seven-month period from April 1, 2016, to Oct 31, 2016. 

The SPA, however, is subject to the receipt of orders for the Malaysia readable electronic passport books (e-passports), each to contain data page with an embedded chip, from the Immigration Department.

In the event that the contract entered between PKN and the Immigration Department for the supply of finished product dated May 20 is extended or terminated, the SPA will likewise be extended or terminated.

Earlier this year, Datasonic defended itself against reports saying that a shortage of passports was due to defective chips, saying it was not at the time the principal supplier of the Malaysian passport booklets and chips.

On April 27, Datasonic was awarded a RM223.38mil contract to supply passport documents for five years, or for 13.416 million passports, from Dec 1, 2016 to Nov 30, 2021.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed was reported in August as saying that the ministry was mulling the possibility of engaging a new passport vendor following the shortage.