Alleged corrupt practices at passport office: Signs popped up long before

The news had it throughout the week that an irate hard-working Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration paid a surprise visit to the passport office following an expose by a newspaper on some fraudulent practices in the passport application process.

The local newspaper report exposed some abuse and frustrations passport applicants go through using the premium application processes. The report and the minister’s reaction when she visited the passport application centre vindicated me.

When you see something, the belief is that you say something to ginger an alert if what you are seeing needs to be investigated.

Frustrations

So, when last year I came face-to-face with frustrations when I applied for and went to follow up on an online expedited passport application at the Passport Premium Digital Centre, I spoke about it.

I used my column in the Daily Graphic of July 23, 2022, to draw attention, hoping then that the powers that be would cast a watchful eye on the beautiful online passport application system that had come into place. My article was entitled “Acquisition of Ghana Passport: Passport Premium Application Centre could do better”.

Short of calling it a corrupt service, I pointed out what I thought was a system belaboured with needless and stressful bureaucracy. I saw as ludicrous, the too many human interfaces and queues, the rigidity from security outside to checking one’s details to “vetting”. They all presented long queues for a system that had automatically given an applicant a specific time for a so-called first appointment.

All the same, I soon discovered that the worst was yet to come. After some weeks of waiting, one had to go for the next appointment, where one pays for a mandatory “service” for biometric features and a picture to be taken. Why all that could not have been done on the first visit puzzled me.

Then there was yet another additional payment if one wanted what they called “VIP” service to get away faster than normal for the vetting and processing of one’s biometrics. I paid for that service.

After all that process, one had to wait a bit longer for the newly printed passport. In short, my article drew attention to too many human interfaces and the to and fro within the system, which created unnecessary stress with heightened despondency.

Loopholes

So when a beautiful online process gets belaboured with so many to and fro, there are certainly going to be loopholes for corruption to flourish. That was the conclusion in my mind as I sat in that packed hall and observed what was happening at counters and mini offices, one could easily decipher what was going on —­ the old age “whom you know” matrix and concealed handshakes were at play.

The minister’s visible wrath and pronouncement when she visited showed her clear disappointment at what was going on at the passport acquisition centre.

According to her, too much was happening with civil servants in the system who work with people from outside referred to as ‘goro’ boys; busy engaged in taking money from applicants to change dates, creating the mess that was going on.

She said furiously, “This cannot continue.” She believed there was too much going on in the passport acquisition chain which should not happen. Any wonder that at the spur of the moment, she thought the place should be sanitised immediately.

She consequently asked that those employees who had worked in the system for more than a year should consider themselves redundant from next week.

Anomalies

Certainly, some anomalies are going on at the passport application centre and these are fast eroding the beauty of the online application system. The problem is that there are probably a few bad nuts who are exploiting and derailing the beautiful system.

Therefore, sacking everyone who has been employed there for more than a year may not be the answer. As the minister pointed out, thorough investigations should be employed and those found culpable eliminated.

In doing that, the too many human interfaces in the system promoting to and fro should also be blocked and the chain simplified. Simplification is the clear answer. The ministry needs to get rid of the rigidity and shorten the processes, from verification and biometric vetting to collection dates.

In other places, and even with our own embassies outside, once an applicant applies for a passport, the date given is kept to. All necessary payments are done online and the new passport is put in the post as scheduled.

Any queries and clarifications are done online or by phone. Human interventions are minimised or eliminated. This can be done for the system we have created for ourselves.

We all hailed the online passport application when it was first introduced, thinking it was going to shorten the process, throw out foreigners who were cheating the system, as well as eliminate the ‘goro’ boys who used to hang around as middlemen.

It is time for us to follow the route of simplification and take out the rigours in the passport application system. Those middlemen and their bosses will have no job to do. They certainly will be thrown out by the system.