Saint Dominic.-Starting in August, the General Directorate of Passports will issue the first biometric passport, after awarding a consortium of companies the process of acquiring the new infrastructure for the travel document, whose project will have an investment of 6,195 million pesos .
This was reported yesterday by President Luis Abinader, during La Semanal con la Prensa, where it was explained that the project, which will be self-sustaining, was executed under quality and transparency standards in accordance with the recommendations of the General Directorate of Public Contracting and the provisions and principles established in Law 340-06.
“This is a model tender that we could use for everything that has to do with services in the Public Administration, because the payment for this project will be paid by passbook; That is, the Government will not have to spend a single peso,” explained the director of Passports, Lorenzo Ramírez.
He indicated that the public procurement process was awarded last December to the Franco-American consortium Emit, made up of the companies Entrust, from the United States; Midas, from the Dominican Republic; and Thales, from France.
He added that the contracting process also had the collaboration of the Zero Bureaucracy Unit, made up of the Ministry of Public Administration (MAP), the National Competitiveness Council (CNC) and the Government Office of Information and Communication Technologies (OGTIC). , as well as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
In September of last year, the General Directorate of Public Procurement “provisionally” suspended the tender for electronic passports after finding “indications of violation” of the principles of participation, equality and free competition during the process.
Decree
In July 2023, the Executive Branch declared, through Decree 282-23, on national security, the contracting, design, supply of notebooks, equipment and maintenance of the technological systems for the issuance of the electronic passport in the country.
With said provision, the Government authorized the General Directorate of Passports to use the exception procedures for national security situations established in numeral 1 of paragraph of article 6 of Law 340-06 and its modifications, and numeral 1 of article 3 of Decree 543-12, which establishes the Regulations for the Application of Law 340-06.
Advances
During the presentation, it was reported that during the course of the year, it is expected that the DGP will be able to issue up to one million passport books, which guarantees a considerable improvement in service and coverage for the population.
One of the great advances has been the digitalization of the process, allowing citizens to make requests online from 15 of the 16 locations in the country, with plans to expand to the entire nation in the coming days.
It was announced that starting in July, citizens will be able to make payments for taxes, photography and authorizations for minors, through a single online payment button.
Passports
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During 2024, the General Directorate of Passports issued 832,124 booklets, more than during 2023 when some 775,959 were produced, reflecting an increase in demand for this travel document.
