United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Situation before the initiative
The previous passport system faced with the following situations:
1.Inconvenience
Too many steps - An applicant had to go through many steps, visiting one service counter after another, in order to complete the passport application process which caused inconvenience.
Too many documents - Many identity documents were required to be considered visually by officials in order to verify genuine identity of applicants.
2.Low Technology
The system was not computerized. The lack of computerized system caused delay in checking documents and data entry process, including production system.
3.Verification Problem
Officials visually verified identity documents. The online link with the National Registration Database of the Ministry of Interior was not installed in the system as it was not for the use of biometrics technology which is the most efficient tool in verifying genuine documents. Therefore, identity fraud was often found for passport application, i.e. using other person’ s identification card and using fraudulent identification card.
4.Time Consuming
The above factors combined had resulted in time consuming in passport application and production processes.
The Initiative: E passport: the Solution Streamlining the application process, One-stop service, featuring more efficient information gathering method, using Biometrics technology, where the applicant spends no more than 15 minutes to complete the process of data collection and identity verification, was then the most preferable scheme to be implemented. The passport is finished in 2 working days after application.
With the incorporation of online national registration database, the system effectively verifies true identity of applicants, resulting in fewer documents required.
The implementation of biometrics technology in passport, as recommended by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), renders imposition on collection of each applicant’s fingerprints, thus, the passport application system utilizes such biometric data to verify true identity of an applicant by checking against the applicant’s identity records.
For the passport booklets, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)decides to employ the use of laser engraving in order to deter document tampering and counterfeiting.
Containment of fingerprints and facial data, along with the use of public key encryption, by the embedded contactless microchip within the passport also deters document counterfeit, tampering, and fraudulent use of ePassports.
Major Policy and Trend
Introduction of the e-government policy to overhaul efficiency of government public service i.e. the smart identity card, e-customs, e-services and e-passport,inferred the need for operational process redesign and innovation by employing newer technologies.
The international community encounters with global threats stemming from terrorism, illegal immigrants, dual citizenship, and human trafficking, most of which exploited the benefit of convenient overseas travel. This necessity, with the ICAO requirements for travel document for safe passenger after 911 incident, became the need for states to issue more secure passports.
The introduction of Thailand’s ePassport which is a reliable and secure system, therefore, enhances credibility of Thai passport and immigration system resulting in assuring foreign investors, tourists and international airlines that Thailand is a safe place for business which thus is contributive to the overall economic development of the country.
Thailand’s pioneering in ePassport also reflects the country’s serious commitment with the international community to prevent movements of terrorists, securing global safety, and confident economic activities.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Achievements Identity theft and fraud is the fastest growing crime of the 21th century. The ePassport, with its extensive printing security features, and incorporation of modern technology of Biometrics, contactless microchip and public key encryption, in the application and production process, effectively prevent the identity fraudulent issue. The evidence of the above is apparent in records of fraudulent use of another person’s identification documents caught in passport application, proving the effectiveness of identity verification system by the use of biometrics technology. The fact that no successful counterfeit or tampering of ePassport has yet been discovered is another measure of success in combating identity fraud. Where applications could be submitted at multiple locations, subsequent production process, namely passport personalization is centralized at the headquarters, enhancing protection against system breaches. In broader terms, ePassport strengthens the credibility of Thai passport and immigration system, since currently, Thailand is one of the approximately 35 countries issuing passport deemed to be one of the very advanced generations. In successful implementation of the use of Thailand’ s ePassport at border controls, the ePassport significantly supports the prevention of international problems and crimes including terrorism, illegal immigrations, human trafficking and drug trafficking, through enabling a more efficient passenger processing. It allows concentration of other resources onto passengers of risk concern, leading to effective controls of undesired movements. As a result of the upgrade in service process, the ePassport application offers simple and fast service component. The integration of intelligence by the establishment of modern information technology and operational infrastructure help create secure and credible system. Since 2005, the ePassport project has been awarded with the outstanding public service award of the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission, the Royal Thai Government. And the project has also been the public service model that attracts study visits from government agencies from both domestic and foreign countries. Until 2007, the service has been kept to the standard, as reflected in the public satisfaction surveys during October to December 2007. The average of 83.22 % of the surveyed public were found to be most satisfied, very satisfied, and satisfied with the service processes (37.65 % most satisfied, 26.85 % very satisfied, and 18.7 % satisfied). On the question of service efficiency, 84.68 % of the surveyed public expressed that they were most satisfied, very satisfied, and satisfied (41.19 %, 24.58 %, and 18.9 % respectively) Also, with the service improvement, the MFA continues the expansion of branch office to various provinces totaling 9 offices. This has been done to help facilitate people who live in remote areas from Bangkok to save time and expenses by visiting provincial branch offices nearby. Besides, the MFA arranges mobile passport unit to visit more than 35 provinces across the country all year round, to provide reaching out passport service to the people. As a cumulative result, the Thai public is able to enjoy passport application services of high quality and efficiency and wide coverage throughout the country, fulfilling the MFA’s objective in increasing public service across the country.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Thai ePassport was initiated under the Royal Thai Government’s policy on eGovernment which has included the introduction of smart identity cards, development of e-custom system, and e-service. The chronology of the project development is as follows: In 2003, the Cabinet approved that the MFA and the Ministry of Information Communication Technology developed the ePassport project. The MFA had then liaised with all parties concerned to materialize the concept of the new passport, its application and production process, along with new technologies that would enable the new ePassport system, academia, private sectors and high ranking government officials were sought for advice on various concerns including technical and project operations. In 2004, the MFA opened bidding for private companies to provide passport processing and production with the implementation of Biometrics technology. Having signed a contract with the awarded company, Chanwanich (CWN) consortium, the MFA has set up 4 Committees, i.e. the Committee on Booklet Appearance and Security Features Specification for Electronic Passports, the Committee on Office Refitting for Electronic Passports Services, the Committee on Technology and Communications for Development of Electronic Passports System and the Committee on the System of Immigration Control by Electronic Passports. The aforesaid Committees then brainstormed on various issues such as designed details of, at the time, future passport, its application and production system including IT infrastructure, to ensure that the quality of outputs of each task in every were met, and to liaise and translate needs between the MFA and the private companies. The MFA supervises overall process of project development in order to ensure the benefit of the new system to be put in place, which would, in turn, result in Thai public maximum satisfaction in service. On 26th May 2005, ePassports of diplomatic and official types were issued and by 1st August 2005, all new Thai passports issued are now ePassports. Up to present, 2.7 million ePassports are issued to Thai public.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
With the intent to improve services and introduction of ePassport, the main objectives of the project were directed as follows: 1. To use IT to computerize and quicken process of application and production. Information technology has matured to a stage of reliable implementation of large scale services. Therefore, the first objective of the project is to implement computerized tools in the application tasks to simplify and quicken data collection and entry process. Such changes include the entry of personal information and collection of facial photograph or the initiatively required fingerprints. 2. To balance facilitation and security. The ePassport application and production has to incorporate measures that would not only improve facilitation for the public, but also strengthen security of the system and passport as an output.The objective is to reduce the need for extensive human supervision at regular operations, and at the same time, equip human components, the officials, with useful information necessary to making correct consideration on irregular application cases. 3. To utilize biometric data to verify identity The ePassport application is to use available personal identification information technology by incorporating capture of biometric data in passport as required by ICAO to verify true identity of applicants. This objective is founded on the international standard of using the above technologies to enhance the capabilities of the machine readable travel documents. 4. To check fingerprints and face structure when applying. With the intent to utilize biometric data of high accuracy for prevention of identity fraud, it is only rational that the system not only captures the biometric data at the application process, but also to use such data to verify true identification and also that the applicant is not an identity of concern. 5. To complete the usage cycle of Biometrics as enabling technology in effective border and document controls. The subsequent installation of automatic gate to check fingerprints of passport holders at immigration checkpoint will translate to a highly secure, reliable and efficient immigration system. The Strategies involve: -The MFA initiates and outsources to private company. Since the MFA is the sole authority in the operation of passport application and production, it controls operational adjustment initiation to provide the best available passport service to the public. The MFA consequently outsources private companies to perform routine operations to achieve necessary scalability. - The MFA supervises operation and production. Even with the outsourcing of the operation, the MFA maintains close supervision over operation and production to ensure maximum quality of service and to strengthen security measures, all of which result in credibility of the Thai passport and maximum facilitation for the public. - The MFA controls overall process and improvement. At each steps of the back-office process and collateral systems integration, the MFA retains control over the usage and adjustments of the components. This method supports prevention of breach and abuse by employees of the private companies involved in the operation and maintenance of the system. Further measures and development deemed necessary by the MFA can also be imposed on the companies to comply.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The MFA and its the Committee on Passport Development started conceptualizing the new ePassport and its attributes on production techniques, visual appearance, and microchip features since late 2004, and closely monitored emerging global standard on the relating technologies. Once, the Committee was certain of the technological trends and perceived the project feasible to be implemented, the MFA then focused on the application procedure adjustments along with the technical redesign of the production process. These concepts were written out on TOR developed as a basis for bidding in September 2004. With 5 consortiums tendering, the bid was finalized by December 2004. On the 26th May 2005, first ePassports, of diplomatic and official types, were issued as part of a pilot launch and by 1st August 2005, all new Thai passports issued are now ePassports. During the initial development of the system, to ensure that the MFA will be well equipped with necessary knowledge and information, MFA personnel sought to add new technology know how to its officials by sending them to attend various meetings on standardizing the use of new technologies in the innovative ePassport, including those conducted by ICAO New Technology Working Group and the Government Discussion Forum on Electronic Identity Documents. This is also aimed to ensure that the Thai ePassport would conform to ICAO standard. Recognizing that the final value of the ePassport shall derive from actual habitual usage on both domestic and foreign soils, the Thai MFA took serious endeavour to ensure interoperability with other countries by bilateral testing and interoperability conventions, including prompt exchange of Country Signing Certificate to promote international recognition of the Thai ePassport. Currently, Thailand has already issued over 2.7 million ePassports, amounted to half of Thai passports in circulation. Further ongoing developments of ePassport include the implementation of Basic Access Control as a method of contacting the microchip, which will help facilitate the automated process of reading data from the chip, and increase the applicant and production processes’ efficiency. Also, the implementation of automatic gate in Thailand to complete reliable and secure immigration system to help resolve international issues such as terrorism, drug trading, illegal immigrants and human trafficking, which would satisfy the initial international cooperation in using Biometrics, is on Thailand’s priority agenda. In the context of public service, the MFA is expanding its reach to accommodate the public by establishing 9 provincial branches and planning to establish another in the deep southern part of Thailand by mid 2008. This has been done to help facilitate locals traveling to neighbouring countries, contributing to the prosperity of the local economy. Furthermore, the MFA organizes year round roving application units to service the application of passports in distance provinces, totaling 35 trips in 2007, including destinations in the far south.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The main obstacles inhibiting the ePassport project stem from the fact that the project is, in itself, an innovation, specifically process innovation where routine procedures are redesigned in a manner never attempted in Thai public service, and product innovation, where a globally new type of passport would be introduced. The obstacles can be categorized into technical dimension, and public understanding. Because many implementations are new to the MFA and even to the government, the MFA had to face the lack of technical experiences necessary to develop and operate the redesigned system, along with the lack of experience in managing a comprehensive IT project of such proportion. This particular obstacle is overcome by the establishment, and effective actions, of four Committees that have played crucial roles in summoning the resources and expertise needed to achieve the required service. The technical dimension of challenge in this project can be categorized into two parts, information technology and production of the passport. This obstacle is being overcome by the setting up of the monitoring team consisting of IT experts, assigned to continuously obtain more knowledge from its counterpart, the private company, and put the knowledge to use in observing the operation, and feeding back finding along with recommendation to upper levels of the MFA management. . In the aspect of public understanding, it is inevitable that the public would be affected by the change of new passport’s system. The public are puzzled by the fact why they are asked to be in person at the passport offices for being photographed and fingerprints taken and why they could no longer submit their passports by post for validity extension or personal data amendments. The MFA has been trying extensively to explain to the public through all kinds of media that the ePassport is a secure, reliable and credible travel document that is required by ICAO. If Thailand can issue travel document which is internationally accepted, it will facilitate international travel of the Thai people. The new passport process is designed for the benefit of the Thai people and is aimed to facilitate the public and to prevent identity theft that will in turn prevent terrorism, drug trafficking and human trafficking. This will therefore make Thailand a safe and secured place for foreign investment and tourism, contributing to the prosperity of the country.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Resource mobilization for the MFA’s ePassport project started with drafting of terms of reference governing development, implementation, and operation of the new ePassport issuance system. At this particular phase, external resources such as academia, IT experts and officials from Ministry of information and communications technology were involved. Expertise needed and found ranged from technical to managerial expanding system development, project communications, and financial management. Chanwanich private consortium, as directed by MFA’s initiative in outsourcing parts of the public service, was responsible for summoning financial resources involving investments on hardware, which are used in both application processing service and physical booklet production, software facilitating the entire computerized passport issuance process, and human ware, the very delicate component of the ePassport system both that are assigned with the task of directly servicing the public, and those who are assigned with maintenance of the mechanical and computer system. In turn, the MFA purchases the end products, which are complete passports, from its private counterpart. After, signing a contract with CWN, the MFA set up 4 Committees to consider and formulate details in the project ranging from booklet appearance, security features, office refitting and technology development. These Committees are tasked to ensure that CWN operates ender guideline and specification approved by the MFA. The MFA, additionally, finds itself with the important task of provisioning and controlling the operation of CWN with respect to the project, from days of the development to actual service operation that followed. But the scope of the ePassport project does not end at complete launch of the ePassport application and production system, but rather throughout the actual operations for years to come, which also includes the transfer of technology, and it is obligatory that the MFA prepares its own staff, which can be viewed as an additional and not dismissible resource, for application process and technical staff for production system in the next few years before the end of contract.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The world stunning incident on 11th September 2001 at New York City lead to a UN resolution No. 1373, where in section 2 (g) states that “movement of terrorist be prevented by effective border control and effective travel document”. As a response, the ICAO proposed and imposed a new standard on travel document, the machine readable travel document.The enhanced travel document, or ePassport, is deemed to be the international standard passport of the near future. The globalize world today promotes exchange of funds, technology, people and resources, which encourages international traveling. The world is shrinking, people have never been more connected, and some critical supporting factors are air travel and efficient border crossing. The ePassport will not be a gimmick, but rather a necessity to lubricate this mass system of people travel. Thus, globalization compels continued development of travel documents into ePassport and beyond. With increasing amount of countries realizing the fact above, more than 35 countries are now using ePassports and this trend is forthcoming as it proved to be beneficial to every country in cooperation to prevent international problems such as terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking and illegal immigrants. It is only logical that more countries must involve in the mainstream in setting out for this standard, or will be left behind at this juncture. As for the Thailand ePassport project, extensive study visits from government and private agencies both domestic and overseas have made their ways to observe both the development and achievements of the project. The MFA also collaborated bilaterally with responsible agencies of other countries to ensure technical interoperability between Thai passport and readers of other countries. The effort has been conducted with the cooperation of Singapore and Japan, with Australia, the US, and the ESSEN group. In a multilateral arena, such as ICAO international operability testing events in Singapore and Berlin, the MFA also has sent both the operational ePassport and those of upgraded access method. In all events, the Thai ePassport were found to be satisfactory or with successful interoperability. The project is also awarded the best public service agency since 2005 by the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission, the Royal Thai Government. The award clearly reflects the recognition for the outstanding public service agency. The ePassport with its one-stop service, and drastic innovation in the production process, presented a new model of service and became a pilot project in Thai public service system.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
1. The high quality passport The accomplishment in issuing ePasssport of high security, high credibility, and accredited with positively resulted technical tests, shed light on the success of the project as a whole. The MFA realized that international cooperation in passport development guiding the standard and future direction in issuance and use of passport, imposes higher quality of passports. Regarding to this fact, with Thailand’s achievement in issuing ePassport of accepted standard and quality, the Thai’ s ePassport today have gained credibility from user authorities in international traveling. It is also the case that more attempts of fraudulent use of passports are made, which the impostor presents his self with another person’s passport, but only in vain. 2. The simple and efficient process The application process, and its high capacity, evident in application acceptance record, where over 7,600 applications per day were filed, is an element of success. Such accomplishment reflects that MFA now has an efficient system of high caliber ready to service the public. The one-stop service and IT enabled application process have also recently discovered and countered fraud attempt cases such as application of new passport by fraudulent personal identity card, and fraudulent use of another person’s identification card. 3. Friendly environment Warm reception, a trait inseparable from the Thai culture, aimed to provide the service seeking public, has been regularly instilled onto the human ware of the project. Besides, all passport offices are designed as modern and convenient in order to facilitate one-way flow of passport application. The key elements of success are 1. Technical Committees and Monitoring Team are organs that actively supervise and monitor the operations as well as providing suggestions for future development on the system, to ensure continuous improvement, furthering public satisfaction with the service provided for passport application. Close attention to details by the Committees since the beginning of system development assured that the system would be up to required standard. Monitoring team consisting of IT experts became an important mechanism for the MFA from the start of operation onwards, as the auditory component. 2. Service friendly attitude. The MFA ensures that service personnel are always fully aware of the importance in portraying respect and courtesy towards the common public. The MFA actively endeavours to make its staff to realize that their servicing job is of high significance as it is the MFA’ s contact point with the public. The performance of the service is regarded as the window of the MFA to the public at large. The MFA reputation depends very much on their servicing performance since more than 90% of the public firstly contact the MFA when they apply for their passports. Moreover, by assessing questionnaires on passport service, which are regularly distributed, the MFA is well aware of public attitude towards the service and deems it necessary to cater the service to accommodate the needs of the public. 3. Healthy working relationship between MFA and its private counterpart. The MFA’ s policy level liaise with the management of Chanwanich Consortium, is an addition to the regular technical consultations between MFA officials and CWN’ s operation staff. This close coordination leads to constant communication and regular information exchanges, ensuring that issues are raised in a timely manner, and promptly solved efficiently, leading to reliable operational continuity with high quality service.


Institution Name:		DEPARTMENT OF CONSULAR AFFAIRS, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		SONGPHOL SUKCHAN
Title:		DIRECTOR OF PASSPORT DIVISION
Telephone/ Fax:		+6629817255
Institution's / Project's Website:		+6629817256
E-mail:		s.songphol@gmail.com
Address:		123 CHAENG WATTHANA ROAD
Postal Code:		10210
City:		LAK SI
State/Province:		BANGKOK
Country:		Thailand

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information