Biometric passports are coming this summer

Having committed to implement biometric passports in 1999, Turkey is working intensely to conclude efforts that weren’t completed in 2009 within the first six months of 2010. Senior officials involved in the project told Sunday’s Zaman that biometric passports will be available by the end of this summer at the latest.

Efforts to produce passports with enhanced safety features were being conducted only by the Ministry of Interior until 2009, but now they are being carried out in trilateral coordination between the Foreign Ministry, the National Police Department and bureaucrats from the central bank’s mint. The team’s coordinator is Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Naci Koru.

Koru, who initiated the process of transferring state-citizen affairs to the digital environment with the e-consulate project he introduced while he was Turkey’s consul general in Chicago, also managed the “e-state” process. Leading a project that will enable state institutions to eliminate the use of paper when corresponding with each other, Koru answered Sunday’s Zaman’s questions about the biometric passport. “We are contributing to aspects of the project that concern us at the Foreign Ministry. We are taking part in the trilateral coordination for the benefit of our own people and to facilitate passport services at the 180 representative offices we have abroad. We are making great progress. I expect we will switch to biometric passports as soon as possible to enable Turkey to fulfill its international commitment.”

Conforming to security standards

After the Sept. 11 attacks in particular, the United States insisted that all countries should start using these security-enhanced passports, and recently the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) announced that those international passengers with old passports should expect more problems during their travels abroad. Thus, a single booth will be allocated for processing the old passports at airports in European Union member countries from April 1. This will be a particularly painful process for Turkish citizens as they hold old-style passports and they will be forced to wait in long queues.

Given the fact that while citizens of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, which are not members of the EU, can travel to EU member countries without visas while Turkish citizens still have to go through an arduous visa process, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has expressed disapproval of the EU countries’ attitude. “This attitude is unacceptable in terms of visa requirements from the EU, particularly considering the current status of Turkey’s membership negotiations,” he said, at the same time urging the relevant Turkish authorities to step up their efforts on the implementation of biometric passports. Indeed, visa-free travel was made possible for the citizens of these three Balkan countries because they have biometric passports, the EU claimed.

Currently, the passport transition process is being conducted through the management of the Foreign Ministry, and the National Police Department has started intensive negotiations with private sector representatives that will contribute to the process. An official from the police department noted that they have also met with representatives of foreign companies and that they are determined to solve the biometric passport problem. He added that while the hardware package might be procured from German or French companies, local companies may be a better option for providing the software. It is said that there are Turkish companies capable of supplying the software for the security-enhanced passports and they can even act through a joint venture to carry out the work.

Turkey does not want to encounter any problems in its transition to biometric passports, and it is working hard to complete its preparations during 2010. In this context, it is noted that a deal could be made with local companies for the software-related parts of the process at any time.

Quick but cautious

While Turkey has stepped up its efforts to complete the transition, it is cautious, particularly considering the negative experiences of the past. The National Police Department previously launched a tender to make Turkish passports more secure and awarded the contract in 2007. According to the contract, Turkey should have made the transition to biometric passports in April of this year. As that tender option proved unsuccessful, the department is now inviting potential applicants for interviews.

An official from the National Police Department stresses the importance of the progress made in the joint project. “We are aware of our liabilities, and we are working quickly but cautiously so that our citizens are not disadvantaged. We will not stop working on it because of past failures. We know that we have to move more quickly and determine our course of action. We are working on it, and we are looking at how to solve it. We will solve it in the most practical way. There will be no trouble. We cannot sit down and change everything overnight. Many countries have gone through similar processes. But we cannot insist on ensuring that everything will be provided by local sources. We will concentrate on a solution wherever we find it. Earlier we had an accident, and now we have to find a new car and keep on going,” he said.

Information technology experts point out that hardware may be procured from foreign companies, but that software should be developed by local companies. Indeed, many public institutions use software provided by foreign companies and that this may raise concerns about the security and safety of vital data. Therefore, employing domestic companies at every stage of the development of passport technology is particularly important given the security considerations.

10 years of no progress

US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller paid a one-day visit to Turkey by private jet on Nov. 18, 2009. Contrary to expectations, the top item on his agenda was not Iran or Afghanistan, but biometric passports, as was the case four years ago. The reasons why Turkey had not yet implemented the biometric passports with chips containing fingerprints, retina scans and other personal information were discussed. The FBI director told Turkish authorities that some terrorist organizations may use forged Turkish passports in their terrorist attacks.

Particularly after the Sept. 11 attacks, the US tends to regard the introduction of biometric passports not only as a domestic security issue but also as an international security issue. The 9/11 Commission decided that US citizens should use passports when traveling to Canada or Mexico. Today, many countries are using biometric passports.

As for Turkey, there have been three attempts to introduce biometric passports, but all ended in failure, making the problem more difficult than ever. Under the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Turkey has until April 1, 2010, to introduce biometric passports, but today it is still trying to compensate for 10 years of failure to make any progress. To this end, local and foreign companies are encouraged to establish partnerships. The country is expected to have the system’s infrastructure in place by April 1, and biometric passports are planned to be issued to Turkish citizens later this year.

Current passports of the Turkish Republic come in blue, gray, green and red versions and are considered one of the most problematic passports in the world in terms of security. In the 1980s Turkey introduced green passports although no other country had this practice. Green passport holders represent people in the higher echelons of the bureaucracy, while gray passports are given to the lower bureaucracy. Blue passports are given to ordinary citizens, while Turkish diplomats carry red ones. Today, the government is trying to limit the number of privileged passports, with little success.

Having pledged to introduce biometric passports in 1999, Turkey has been trying to make this happen since 2004. To this end, the central bank’s mint had purchased 5 million passports and 5 million electronic chips for them. The cost to the state was approximately 15 million euros, but the move proved futile and the passports and chips were left to rot in warehouses.

There was also an attempt to open a tender for this purpose. At the time, a number of bribery allegations were being made. Under the coordination of the Interior Ministry, the National Police Department held a tender for biometric passports on October 20, 2005. The contract was signed only on July 11, 2007.

The successful bidder, the Turkish-Malaysian joint venture Kunt Elektronik-IRIS Technologies, lowered its original price from TL 24 million to TL 15.4 million. Later, it was further reduced to TL 10.5 million. However, experts noted that a price below TL 15 million would mean a loss for the bidder.

In other words, the successful bidder did not seek to gain profits from this tender. Concerns were raised by some that the company sought to obtain confidential information and had no intention of fulfilling the terms of the contract. Three out of the six bidders withdrew from the tender due to the falling contract price.

Doing the work in reverse order

After being awarded the contract, the Turkish-Malaysian joint venture started work on it. The project had three phases. The first phase was on developing the software, while hardware was to be procured during the second phase. Finally, data would be loaded into the system and the passport system would be commissioned. However, the company started to work in the reverse order. Since the commission overseeing the tender had limited information about the information technology involved, they could not quite make sense of what was happening. Therefore, the personal data of Turkish citizens was collected from the computers of the National Police Department.

Although many department officials emphasized the risks of collecting such data in the first place, the company was still able to gather the data without significant problems.