…directors involved in shady deals
By Aaron Okyere
A three-month investigation carried out by the Daily Post reveals that the old
passport forms which have been replaced by the biometric forms are being sold by
passport contractors at GH¢300 each to people wishing to obtain Ghanaian passports.
The contractors, after selling the passport forms to the prospective applicants,
help them to fill it and acquire fake birth certificates as well to enable officials
of the Passport Office to process it.
A member of the syndicate, Mr. Rockson of the Birth & Death Registry whose duty it
is to scrutinize the birth certificates does not do so. He simply passes the fake
birth certificates on as authentic. Operatives of National Security whose duty is to
ensure that the details on passport forms are not on what is called the S.L also
pass it on without scrutiny. The Director of Passport at the Passport Office then
appends her signature to the passport, back-dating the Date of Issue to the
pre-biometric days.
This reporter, to double check that this fraudulent system is the order of the day,
went through the process of acquiring one of the old passports in June this year
using a fake name. Within a couple of days, he acquired a passport whose date of
issue is February 2010.
Since the old passport form is illegal, the GH¢300 applicants pay for it go into
the pockets of the members of the syndicate, ie the Director of Passport, Afua
Benneh and her Deputy, Obeng Quakyi, Mr. Rockson of the Birth & Death Registry, the
National Security operatives who handle the S.L, some immigration officers and the
passport contractors.
As a result of the millions of cedis that these people rake in every month from
these nefarious activities, there is no commitment towards processing biometric
passports on time for their prospective owners.
Apart from the billions of cedis that is lost to the state as a result of these
activities, the rate of issue of biometric passports to prospective applicants has
slowed down considerably as the work-load on the few left to handle all the
passports, is heavy.
Another reason why prospective applicants of the biometric passports do not receive
their passports on time is that Mr. Rockson, the man whose duty is to check the
authenticity of the birth certificates, as a result of his indulging in the issuance
of the old passports to rake in money does not find time to go through birth
certificates for biometric passports to enable the process to be completed on time.
Daily Post observed that he spends not more than two hours everyday in dealing with
birth certificates for biometric passports.
A quick check by this paper reveals that though he is supposed to be running shift
with others, so lucrative is the illegal old passport business to him that he has
managed to maneuver to have himself permanently stationed at the Passport Office.
As a result of the lack of interest in processing the biometric forms for their
prospective owners, while the passport costs GH¢50 and processing takes three weeks,
people who pay GH¢100 for ‘express’ and are to receive it within three days do so
after more than a month.
A Ghanaian woman who applied for the biometric passport to enable her travel to
South Africa for medical treatment was on the verge of tears last week because two
weeks after she paid GH¢100.00 to enable her receive it in three days, she is still
being told the passport is not ready.
“Perhaps, they want me to die. I am not going to S.A for pleasure. I need to have a
surgery. Now, the day for the surgery is passed thanks to the people here. What am I
to do now?” she wept when she explained her position to the Daily Post.
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