The Election Commission (EC) is nowhere near completing the distribution of smart national identity (NID) cards among all the eligible voters of the country, even after initiating a project in this regard about one and a half decades ago.
The project – undertaken in 2011 – has so far been able to distribute smart NIDs to only about six crore out of 12.63 crore voters, officials of the EC and the project told TIMES of Bangladesh.
Against the backdrop of such a failure, they said the commission has now taken the initiative to extend the duration of the project, scheduled to end in November, by another two years, resulting in additional costs.
The initiative to provide smart NIDs to 9 crore voters began about a decade and a half ago. For this, the government launched a project titled “Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA)” in July 2011 with the support of the World Bank and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
According to the officials concerned, the project has been moving slowly due to various reasons, including contract cancellations, breaches of promise, and multiple extensions. In 2015, a contract worth Tk800 crore was signed with a French company, Oberthur Technologies, but they failed to complete the work.
The EC cancelled the contract in 2017, alleging unprofessionalism. After that, the World Bank also stopped funding. Subsequently, the project has been run with government funding.
The duration of the IDEA project was extended at least four times, leading to increased costs. The project, which started at Tk1,379 crore, went up to Tk1,696 crore. Later, in December 2020, the EC took up another project called “Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) Phase II”, aiming to provide smart cards to 3 crore voters.
The cost of this project was estimated at Tk1,805 crore, and it was supposed to be completed by November 2025. There are only two and a half months left until the scheduled date, but the progress in distributing smart cards is not encouraging.
Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory (BMTF), a state-owned commercial entity operating under the management of the Bangladesh Army, wanted to provide 3 crore smart cards for Tk406.5 crore. Each card was priced at Tk135, but due to an increase in the dollar rate, BMTF asked for Tk172 for each card. As a result, the number of cards was reduced from 3 crore to 2.36 crore.
When asked about the overall progress of the activities, Project Director Brigadier General Mohammad Azizur Rahman Siddiqui referred to the EC secretary for a better understanding.
He, however, said currently, they have about 1.5 lakh smart cards. Smart cards will start arriving from France next October. He said that more than 2.36 crore cards will come from that country.
Speaking to TIMES, ASM Humayun Kabir, director general of the National Identity Registration Wing at the EC, said, “We are preparing to further expand the distribution programme. From next month, an additional 3 crore voters will be brought under its purview in stages. Printing and distribution will be done at the upazila level. Some 2.5 crore new cards may be available next month.”
As part of a long-term scheme, there is a plan to issue approximately 40 to 50 lakh cards each year, he said, adding that this programme is linked to the budget allocation and the overall operational capacity of the Commission.
Regarding production, the EC senior official said, “Smart cards are not manufactured in Bangladesh. We have to import them, and it involves huge foreign currency expenditure. If they could be manufactured in the country, it would have been much easier.”
The government decided to provide smart cards with the aim of establishing a secure, accurate, and reliable national identity system in the country and ensuring improved services through it. The chip on the smart card stores 32 types of information, which is machine-readable. This is not available on a regular NID.
At the time of the project’s initiation, the Election Commission stated that the smart card would contain information such as occupation, address, age, marital status, educational qualification, religion, passport and driving licence numbers, tax identification number, phone number, and details of parents and spouse.
Additionally, information regarding disability and death would also be included. The design features the national flower, water lily, the national bird, the magpie robin, the National Martyrs’ Memorial, tea leaves, the flags from the Liberation War period and the present, as well as the national anthem. The information on the smart NID card cannot be forged. It is an internationally recognised card.
Foreign trips extravaganza continues
Despite the lack of success with regard to the project objectives, EC officials have continued making unabated foreign trips for the last two years. During this period, they have travelled abroad 180 times on account of this project.
Two election commissioners, along with 48 officials of the EC and the project, will visit the United States, France, the Maldives, South Africa, Jordan, and Malaysia in September and October with the project funds.
Election Commissioner Brigadier General (retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah and IDEA Project Director Brigadier Siddiqui are going to France to check the quality of blank smart cards. As per an office order issued by the EC, Commissioner Sanaullah and Siddiqui will leave for France on 28 September.
Sanaullah, who will stay in France until 4 October, will supervise the pre-shipment inspection (PSI) activities of the blank smart cards. He will also hold meetings with the Bangladeshi community in France and officials of the Bangladesh Embassy on the issues of registration of expatriate voters and overseas voting.
Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory will bear the expenses of Siddiqui’s visit to France. He will return home on 11 October. However, he will pay for his extended stay in France and trips to Switzerland and Germany.
