Brithol Michcoma, the company that had been contracted by the National Institute of Land Transport (INATTER) for the provision of biometric driving licence production services informed through the statement that the suspension of biometric driving licence printing is due to non-compliance, i.e. lack of payment by INATTER for the services provided until then.

The statement from Brithol Michcoma sent to our newsroom explains that "all users who have benefited from driving licences produced since the date of conclusion of the contract for the provision of the aforementioned services have paid INATTER (now the National Institute of Land Transport, INATRO) the appropriate profits, fees and amounts applicable for obtaining them". However, advances the statement, "claiming that the contract concluded between INATTER and Brithol Michcoma had not yet been subject to the procedure by the Administrative Court, INATTER has not paid the amounts due to Brithol Michcoma for such services. In other words, "INATTER has benefited from the driving licences produced by Brithol Michcoma, received all the amounts owed by users and holders of driving licences, but has not paid the amount owed for such services to Brithol Michcoma, for the provision of more than 100,000 driving licences," the statement said.

The contractor also explains that "despite numerous and successive insistences that the respective contract was subject to the required approval of the Administrative Court (a fact that under current law can only be done by the contracting entity, in this case INATTER), this was never requested or obtained.

The company explains that since the contract was signed (January 3, 2019) more than 100,000 biometric driver's licenses have been produced, without being paid, out of a total of 250,000 provided for in the contract.

MZNews has also learned that the matter is being looked at by the Administrative Court (AT) and the Central Office for Combating Corruption (GCCC).