Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Directorate of the Passport Office and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), met on Wednesday to discuss ways of ensuring expeditious processing and delivery of passports.
The meeting discussed in detail, the entire procedures involved in the processing and delivery of passports with the view to identify the causes of delays and other bottlenecks that hamper the smooth operations of the Passport Office.
A statement issued in Accra by the Ministry and signed by Mr. S.J.K. Parker-Allotey, Acting Director Policy Planning and Research Bureau, said the meeting was in reaction to public complaints about delays in the processing of passports.
The meeting identified some of the problems that militate against the speedy processing and delivery of passports as, the need to speed up the dispatch of forms from submission points to the Passport Office in Accra and incorrect completion of passport forms .
Others are inadequate supply of personal details, lack of relevant documents that must accompany applications, frequent breakdown of computers at the Passport Office and the frequent power outages leading to the complete shut down of work.
The rest are the reported incidences of loss of passports with valid visas, the delays in the processing of endorsement forms, and multiple applications for passports by passport holders, which puts undue pressure on the Office.
The statement said as part of a remedial action, the meeting agreed that staff of the Passport Office should put in extra working hours, including working beyond the stipulated 1700 hours daily and weekends to clear the back-log of passports.
It said, henceforth, passports requiring endorsements would be processed within 48 hours of submission and applicants having valid visas in their passports would no longer be required to attach those passports to their applications. Instead , photocopies of those passports including pages with relevant visa details should be attached.
The meeting, the statement, said deplored the activities of passport contractors in the passport delivery system and advised that except in the case of minors, all applications should be submitted to the immigration offices by applicants themselves.
It said, the meeting also decided to revive the Passport Oversight Committee to improve inter-agency co-ordination to facilitate the early processing of passports.
In the meantime, the Passport Office is working hard to rehabilitate the broken down computers to augment the number of serviceable equipment available for the issuance of passports, the statement said.
It appealed to the general public to bear with the situation as steps are being taken to address the passport delivery issue. It also advised the public to desist from crowding at the Office, in order not to slow down work.
