One engineer under ‘Illegal’ House arrest
By Durrell Namasani
Techno Brain, the company at the centre of contact controversy with the Attorney General has warned Malawi citizens and stakeholders about a likely upcoming disruption to Malawi’s Passport System as a result of the company being prohibited by the Government from accessing infrastructure necessary to carry out scheduled maintenance procedures.
The Government of Malawi recently announced its cancellation of Techno Brain’s contract to provide e-passports and to undertake a comprehensive upgrade to the country’s entire passport issuance system on grounds that the company strongly disputes and is challenging through legal means.
Under the contract agreed by the Government of Malawi and Techno Brain in 2019, Techno Brain is responsible for creating the country’s new passport infrastructure, with plans to develop capacity to maintain and operate the system over time, including training and capacity building for over 125 DICS officers. However, these plans were cut short when the Government suddenly announced the cancellation of the contract in December 2021.
Techno Brain wishes to inform the public ahead of time that, as it is currently prohibited by the Government from accessing its infrastructure, it is regrettably unable to conduct scheduled maintenance procedures that are upcoming on 20 January 2022. Failure to perform these procedures is expected to result in disruption and potentially a full system shut down.
In addition to jeopardising the passport issuance system by denying access to Techno Brain to critical infrastructure, one of Techno Brain’s technical engineers, Prakash Naidu, has been placed under illegal house arrest without charge since Saturday, 8 January 2022, after six officers from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services (DICS) arrived at the company guesthouse in Lilongwe. The DICS insists that Mr Naidu – an expatriate technical engineer who had remained in-country to ensure that the passport issuance system remained functional – will remain detained until Techno Brain agrees to hand over all infrastructure under the unilaterally-terminated contract. A writ of habeas corpus challenging the detention as illegal has been filed with the High Court and the company is calling for his immediate release. Furthermore, concerns at the unlawful detention of Prakash Naidu have been raised with international human rights organisations. The Attorney General’s justifications for this unlawful detention further exhibit a remarkable departure from basic rule of law norms.
Techno Brain maintains that the contract is the product of a competitive bidding process that followed all the relevant procurement regulations, and that its resumption would result in a win-win situation for all parties. The full implementation of the system was expected to deliver substantial efficiency gains, both for the Government of Malawi and for citizens that will no longer have to travel to Lilongwe or Blantyre to apply for a passport, as well as critical security benefits in terms of reducing incidents of forgery and identity theft.
Born in Africa, Techno Brain has a strong track record of operating in Malawi to date and employs a number of local staff to operate the system. It is proud of the strong role it has played delivering innovative and ground-breaking solutions in response to local needs and challenges across the region.
