Passport blunder shows serious failure in planning and testing, says MP

 DAP’s Lim Lip Eng says the problem caused the country real financial losses and that the home ministry must order an immediate independent audit of the matter.

The immigration department temporarily stopped issuing Malaysian passports with a validity period exceeding 10 years after issues were reported by several passengers during check-in with certain airlines overseas.

PETALING JAYA:

Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng has panned the immigration department over a blunder that left Malaysians travelling overseas facing issues during check-in with certain airlines due to the extended validity of their passports.

Lim said he welcomed Malaysia’s 10-year passport when it was introduced on July 1 as an effort to make life easier for citizens, “but a vision is only as good as its execution”.

“The government cannot experiment with Malaysians’ passports and then dismiss the problem as a technical issue. This is a serious failure of planning and testing,” he said in a statement.

Yesterday, the immigration department temporarily stopped issuing passports with a validity period exceeding 10 years after issues reported by several passengers during check-in with certain airlines overseas.

Immigration director-general Zakaria Shaaban said these issues were largely due to “confusion” with these airlines over the requirement that passports must have at least six months’ validity remaining for travel.

He said checks with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) confirmed there was nothing against having passports with more than 10 years’ validity.

However, as a temporary measure, the department decided to only issue passports with a maximum validity of 10 years while it sorts out the matter with ICAO and airlines.

Zakaria also said existing passport holders whose passports are valid for more than 10 years would receive a replacement free of charge, and that their new passport would carry a maximum validity of 10 years.

Lim said the immigration department had issued 26,000 new passports valid for more than 10 years because unused validity from previous passports was carried over.

He said the blunder inflicted real financial losses on the country and that the home ministry must order an immediate independent audit to establish who proposed, tested and approved the policy, and disclose the full cost of replacing the affected passports.

“Twenty-six thousand passports were issued before the problem was corrected. Find out who approved it. Reveal the cost. Hold them accountable. Those responsible cannot hide behind technical explanations,” he said.

A social media user had claimed that some Malaysian travellers faced difficulties returning from Zimbabwe because their passports had a validity of 10 years and six months, since they had renewed their passports six months before the documents’ expiry. - FMT