In the latest twist in the saga of Bulgaria’s passports that has meant months of frustration for would-be travellers and Government officials, offices issuing passports were ordered to work extra hours to catch up with the backlog after contractor Siemens failed to supply thousands of blank passports on time.

The Interior Ministry said that from August 23 to 31, offices in Sofia issuing passports would work from 6am until 5.30pm, and from September 1, with the hiring of 40 temporary contract staff, passport offices would stay open until 9pm.

On August 19, Deputy Interior Minister Pavlin Dimitrov said that 9000 passports that were meant to be delivered to applicants between August 16 and 18 had not reached applicants in time because Siemens had failed to supply the requisite blank passports.

By mid-August, close to 90 000 Bulgarians were awaiting their new passports, media reports said. According to Dimitrov, the contract had said that the Interior Ministry would receive 400 000 blank passports by May 30 and a further 600 000 by the end of 2010. The consignment that had been due by May 30 had not been delivered in full, he said. Two months after the deadline, only 393 000 had been delivered.

The situation arose after the Bulgarian Government initiated a large-scale campaign to replace Bulgarians’ identity documents with ones containing biometric information.

Dimitrov said that because of the shortage of blank paper, the production of new documents had been suspended temporarily.

He said that the company had said that it was prepared to deliver at least 35 000 passport forms each Tuesday. However, the company had written earlier to say that it could manage only 20 000. Then, in a telephone conversation, "they told me that they could not deliver more than 9000," Dimitrov said. Even these 9000 forms had not been delivered, he said on August 19.

Daily Standart said on August 19 that the Interior Ministry had contacted Siemens, which had urgently dispatched about 9000 blanks to Bulgaria, accompanied by a letter of apology.

According to an August 18 report by Bulgarian National Television (BNT), at the time the latest crisis became clear, there were only 600 international passport forms in stock.

The additional order had been made because many Bulgarians used the summer holiday period to apply for new passports.

BNT reported Dimitrov as telling journalists that the crisis had led to the director of the ministry’s Bulgarian identity documents department, Maria Kostadinova, having an attack of severe high blood pressure. She had been admitted to hospital for some days.

According to Dimitrov, as quoted by BNT, communication with the company was "very difficult". "Its representatives are unwilling to discuss their responsibilities and obligations with us," he said.

A spokesperson for Siemens told BNT that the delay had been caused by the working arrangements during the summer season.

Officials from the Interior Ministry said that they had "run out of patience" and would seek financial compensation.

Bulgarian-language mass-circulation daily 24 Chassa said that the Interior Ministry and Siemens were negotiating about making new blank biometric passports which would have nearly the same specifications, but the machine used to print them was capable of a daily run of 100 000 items.

This new production could start in mid-September and help the Interior Ministry out of the crisis, Dimitrov said.

The introduction of ID documents with biometric data was a requirement for Bulgaria to join the European Union (EU) and was originally scheduled to come into effect before EU accession in January 2007, but was later rescheduled, with a final deadline in mid-2009.

The changes apply to all Bulgarian ID documents, including Bulgarian passports and Bulgarian drivers’ licences, as well as the "lichna karta" (ID card) for Bulgarians and residence permits for foreigners that will also include biometric data. For foreigners, the procedure for applying for residence permits remains unchanged.

As with most public tenders in Bulgaria, the selection of the winner did not pass without controversy, with rivals contesting the selection of Siemens in the Supreme Administrative Court. In June 2009, the court rejected the challenge and the procedure for issuing the new passports was allowed to proceed.