By Foday Moriba Conteh

A new governance report has reignited national debate over Sierra Leone’s electronic passport contract, raising serious concerns about revenue leakages, high passport fees and weak oversight in the long-standing contractual arrangement between the Government and a private passport supplier, Netpage.

The report, released by the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR), questions whether the State is deriving fair value from the e-passport contract awarded to Netpage, the company responsible for the production and sale of Sierra Leonean passports. According to IGR, the arrangement reflects deeper structural weaknesses in how lucrative public contracts are negotiated, renewed and monitored.

Titled: “Di hade’ pa di case’: Politics and Revenue Failures in Sierra Leone”, a Krio expression meaning “the heart of the matter,” the report examines revenue-generating state concessions and argues that many are structured in ways that disproportionately benefit private interests rather than the public purse. The e-passport deal is cited as a prominent example of how weak contract governance can undermine domestic revenue mobilization.

IGR estimates that between 60,000 and 70,000 passports are issued annually in Sierra Leone and notes that, based on prevailing fees, this volume should generate between USD 7 million and USD 9 million each year. Despite the significant earning potential, the report states that it found no clear evidence of royalty payments or similar revenues from the e-passport operation being paid into the Government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund, describing the absence of traceable income as a major fiscal gap in a country facing persistent budgetary pressures.

The report further draws attention to the high cost of acquiring a Sierra Leonean passport, with fees ranging from USD 100 to USD 180, making it one of the most expensive travel documents in the West African region. IGR argues that such pricing places an undue burden on citizens, particularly low-income earners and is difficult to justify in the absence of transparent disclosure on revenue-sharing arrangements or clarity on how proceeds are reinvested into public services.

Beyond pricing and revenue flows, IGR raises concerns about the procurement and renewal processes underpinning the e-passport contract, noting that the agreement has reportedly been renewed multiple times without open competitive bidding or a comprehensive value-for-money assessment. Such practices, the report argues, undermine established public procurement principles and weaken the State’s ability to renegotiate improved terms that could increase Government revenue or reduce costs to citizens.

Situating those findings within a broader critique of Sierra Leone’s economic governance framework, IGR contends that while corruption, political instability and ethnic politics are often cited as drivers of weak public finances, inadequate scrutiny of high-value contracts plays an equally damaging role. The report warns that when critical revenue streams are structured to limit state benefits, the long-term consequence is reduced fiscal space for essential services such as health, education and infrastructure.

Drawing on data from approximately 3,400 state contracts and interviews with current and former officials across successive administrations, IGR concludes that the challenges highlighted by the e-passport deal cut across political cycles. The contract, it observes, has spanned multiple Governments, suggesting that the problem lies less with any single administration and more with entrenched institutional practices.

IGR further alleges that powerful business actors often employ strategies to retain control over lucrative concessions, including cultivating relationships across political parties, anchoring agreements in institutions rather than individuals to ensure continuity and exploiting periods of political transition when oversight may be weaker. It also suggests that influence over sections of the media can sometimes be used to blunt sustained public scrutiny of controversial contracts.

While acknowledging the presence of ethical public servants and reform-minded business leaders, the report warns that a system has emerged in which large public revenue losses are effectively normalized, with weak accountability mechanisms and the absence of strong political platforms focused on economic governance reform continuing to entrench the problem.

Despite the claims against Netpage, the issue has also drawn a public response from the Minister of Internal Affairs, Morie Lengor, who has defended the company by stating that his Ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, waived the royalties Netpage was required to pay to the Government. The Minister, however, provided no documentary evidence to support that claim and did not specify the years to which such waivers allegedly applied. That defence appears to sit uneasily alongside the terms of the passport production contract, which stipulate that royalties were set at 8 per cent on the sale of each e-passport between January and December 2022 and increased to 10 per cent between January and December 2023, with arrangements from January 2024 onwards described as “open to negotiation with authorities.” Auditors’ records further complicate the Minister’s position, as they reportedly show no royalty payments from Netpage into Government accounts over the past five years and no indication that any formal waiver was granted.

Ultimately, the report frames the e-passport contract as more than an administrative issue, presenting it as a clear illustration of how flawed contractual arrangements can quietly drain national resources over time. Without greater transparency, competitive procurement processes and firm political will to safeguard public revenue, IGR cautions that Sierra Leone risks perpetuating a cycle in which private interests benefit disproportionately while citizens bear the cost. https://thecalabashnewspaper.com/as-internal-affairs-ministers-defence-backfires-netpage-profits-while-the-state-loses-igr-sounds-alarm-on-sierra-leones-e-passport-contract/