Timely breakup

There was the risk of our personal data circulating across the globe, ready to be snapped up by the highest bidders.

The government has thankfully scrapped the tender that would have allowed a foreign company to collect and verify sensitive personal information of Nepali citizens. The tender related to the national identity card was hastily approved by former home minister Rabi Lamichhane by circumventing due process. The government has also decided to investigate the decision-making that led to the handing of the contract to an international agency. The probe should not ignore Lamichhane’s claim that he was only giving continuity to the process that had long been underway, much before he took office. After all, Lamichhane could not have just walked into the office and started the procedure of awarding the contract to a foreign agency overnight. While Lamichhane should be made accountable for his actions as the minister leading the project, he was in all likelihood egged on by a gang of fraudsters within and outside the government. The probe should bring them all under the radar.