Frequent failures of the “eGate” system for passport clearance at Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s second terminal have affected thousands of airline passengers and led to complaints about the system vendors and possible sabotage.

Nur Jazlan was quoted in the Sunday Mail newspaper as saying that the Immigration Department had been told to see whether the department’s requirements were being met, or if they were being “vendor-driven”.

The performance of the current vendors was “inconsistent and disappointing”, he was quoted as saying, with sub-contracting having aggravated the problem.

“The performance of the current vendors including the core mainframe and peripheral applications, like fingerprinting and facial recognition, has been inconsistent and disappointing,” he said, according to the report.

“The introduction of new vendors created integration issues with existing vendors, contributing to the frequent non-performance at major airports.”

On Friday, Mustafar Ali, the director-general of Immigration, promised to put a stop to the frequent system failures affecting the eGate system at airports.

The Immigration Department was also subject to recent criticism after system failures led to long delays at several passport offices, which led Mustafar to say that the problems would take six months to be solved.

“As to whether the system will be partially or even wholly replaced will be decided after the review,” he told the Sunday Mail. “We do not believe in knee-jerk reactions. All this will be studied and considered before a final decision is made. It is about doing things properly.”

Nur Jazlan said vendors would be terminated if they did not meet Immigration’s demanding standards. The Treasury would be asked to take severe action against vendors who failed to meet their obligations, or under-performed.

However, any alternative to myIMMs would come under the purview of the Public Private Partnership Unit, which would evaluate the National Immigration Control System and any feasibility study.