Nepal puts ID cards project on ice

The Government of Nepal is believed to have scrapped the bidding process for its high-profile national identity card project. The decision was made, according to local sources, after a conflict of interest was discovered between a bidder and the consultant that prepared the tender documents.

The project had involved distributing 100,000 biometric identity cards to Nepali citizens by 2014 - and had an agreement for an US$8 million grant from the Asian Development Bank to run a pilot project.

As well as creating a national database of Nepali citizens, the ID cards were to be used to provide citizens with a secure method of identity verification and to help facilitate effective delivery of government services.

Safran Morpho and Gemalto had been selected after a rigorous technical evaluation and were competing for the final financial evaluation. However, ADB found that a former employee of Gemalto had prepared the tender document.

A fresh bidding process is expected to be announced in the future.