Immigration office halts issuance of passports due to system breakdown

By Awan Achiek

The Department of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport and Immigration on Monday announced that due to a system breakdown it has halted issuance of passports and other travelling documents.

Maj. Gen Simon Majur Pabek, Director General of the Directorate of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passport and Immigration said the German technology provider, Muhlbauer shutdown the system last week following delays in renewing the license by government.

“What led down to the shutdown of the system is to do with the license. It’s supposed to be renewed after 10 years but we didn’t renew it on time, and it led to system shut down,” Majur told journalists at a press conference in Juba.

Majur said technicians are working around the clock to reinstall normal services and to clear the backlog of pending passport and nationality applications.

“We are actually apologizing to the public for not informing them early, we thought that this issue of the system will actually be something that can be addressed within a couple of days,” he said.

Majur apologized to those inconvenienced by the situation, assuring that within a couple of days, the system will be restored so that people seeking passports and nationality cards can get them.

“So I cannot tell you exactly when the system is going to be restored, but I do believe it’s going to be within the coming weeks,” he disclosed.

He revealed that they owe the Germany-based multimillion passport printing company, Muhlbauer, 12 million U.S dollars stemming from contracts signed.

“We don’t owe the company anything, but there are some other contracts with that company, which is actually becoming a part of our obligation later on, but not us directly. Yeah, there’s money, about more than $12 million, but those are breach of the contract,” Majur said.