South Sudan owes Germany's passport firm $1.7 million

(radiotamazuj.org)

South Sudan owes Germany’s multimillion passport printing company, Muhlbauer, 1.7 million U.S dollars, an official said.

David Oromo Jobojobo, Deputy Director of ICT of Nationality, Passport and Immigration, said the country is facing difficulties clearing outstanding arrears it owes the company.

“We had a lot of difficulties because the company has a lot of issues to do with trust and we still have a pending balance of 1.7 million dollars,” Oromo told reporters at Juba International Airport upon arrival from Germany.

Oromo, who traveled with the Director General of Immigration, Gen. James Atem Marol to Germany on 12th February, said they discussed with the company ways to continue printing passport and nationality certificates.

“We came up with a solution which the company has accepted and we have come to an agreement; they will continue supplying us as they wait for pending payments,” he announced.

He said the department plans to issue new passports with increased visa pages.

“We are having a change request. We need also to update our passport, our national certificate, and ID and we shall issue a new passport with increased visa pages,” he said.

In July 2021, the Ministry of Finance paid 1.4 million USD to Germany.

South Sudanese have often criticized the department’s delayed issuance of passports and national identity cards, with its German technology provider known for threatening to shut down the system over failure to pay bills.

In 2017, the Department of Passports and Immigration said it had stopped giving out passports due to technical problems.