She asked a category of officials seconded to the office not to return to their posts at the passport offices.

In fact, the process of acquiring or renewing a Ghanaian passport is difficult.

The Passport Office as an institution needs overhauling to make it serve its purposes.

With the introduction of the online application procedure, Ghanaians were sure that things would change for the better, particularly, with the expedited service category.

The online process is fraught with irregularities; applicants go through an unnecessarily long and cumbersome process in order to acquire or renew a passport.

People are bypassing the system to have their passports issued, all because the system is not efficient and effective because of corruption.

Why will one go through the expedited service for a passport renewal, and even pay for the delivery of their passport and not get it on the scheduled date?

And yet, nobody calls them to say a word as to why and how the delay in issuing the passport.

This is absolutely unacceptable.

My scenario: On May 4, 2023, I put in an application to renew my passport.

I was given an appointment date of June 21, 2023 to have my bio data captured.

I used the premium application centre (PAC) and reported on the scheduled date to have my bio data etc., captured.

I used VIP counter and paid extra for that, including delivery fees.

I was supposed to have received my passport on July 25, 2023. To date, I have not received my passport, and nobody bothered to call me to explain why the delay.

I called twice and the response was that it was not ready and that was all.

How can that happen?

Am I not owed any explanation?

The practice: Two colleagues of mine who applied much later than I did have received their passports in no time, because they circumvented the process by using “some people who matter”.

I could have used the same means, but I wanted to test the system this time to see its effectiveness.

In the past, I spent less than a week to renew my passport by using my contacts without even paying anything apart from the prescribed fees.

If the passport office knows it cannot issue passports and deliver same, why does it allow people to go through the expedited service and charge extra for that?

Can the passport office say that since the time I and other applicants of my ilk, who applied and used this process, the office had not issued any passports to any applicants who applied much later than us?

This poor approach to doing things is a disincentive to the success we crave for and rather makes people to always circumvent the process whenever they need services rendered.

The country will lose revenue that would have been generated, with an inefficient system.

People would rather get services through third parties, who pocket sums collected, paying little or nothing at all to the state.

Passport Office, please wake up from your slumber.

Note that you owe Ghanaians, like myself,  a duty to good and unhindered service delivery.

Stephen Sah,
Legal Manager/Company Secretary,
Graphic Comm. Group Ltd,
Accra.

On the back of this, Madam Ayorkor Botchwey has relieved staff who were seconded to the passport office of their duties.

The Minister has directed that effective Monday, August 21, 2023, these employees should not report to work because they have been changed.

Notably, she cautioned employees who had worked at the Passport Office for more than a year to stay off work as part of measures to bring sanity.

“Everybody who has been here for more than one year, from Monday on, please do not come back because you have been changed. We want to restore some sanity. Every time politicians are corrupt, meanwhile, it is some public civil servants who will do things that shouldn’t be done, and then they will be put on politicians,” she directed.

This was after a visit to the passport office on Monday, where the Minister expressed her shock at the unfair procedures that employees there subject applicants to.

She bemoaned that, through the collaborative effort of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia the Ministry has been able to digitise the passport acquisition process.

However, some people are deliberately manipulating the system for their gain.

The Minister hinted investigations have commenced into the criminal activities with some names already coming up.

The investigations, she noted, has shown the existence of a network that was working with Passport Office employees, adding that she was shocked at the widespread notion that only politicians and her ministry were responsible for corruption.

“It is disheartening that while blame is often laid at the feet of politicians, it is, in fact, some public servants who engage in these wrongful acts, which are then mistakenly attributed to politicians,” she lamented.

She added investigations into the “goro boys,” who prey on applicants with the help of office staff, are still ongoing and moving forward.

The Minister said she is convinced there is cooperation with certain personnel at the Passport Office because these outside players cannot work alone.

She has, therefore, issued a warning that those found guilty will face legal action as a deterrent to others.

ALSO READ:

• How digitalisation pushed passport office revenue from ¢1m in 2017 to ¢56m in 2021

• Y’asem Nie: Most ‘Goro boys’ are former employees at DVLA, Passport Office

Listen to the Minister in the video below:

Passport office: Foreign Affairs Minister sacks overstayed officers. #JoyNews pic.twitter.com/r2k5YCcT6j

— Joy 99.7 FM (@Joy997FM) August 14, 2023