Passport acquisition must be hassle-free

A citizen requires a passport as a mark of identification for international travels. The possession of a passport is an indication that one is a citizen of a particular nation.

Despite the importance of this piece of document, its acquisition has been saddled with massive bribery and corruption and has led to many citizens using unthinkable means to acquire one in the country.

Many applicants, in their desperation to acquire passports in the country, illegally pay huge sums of money to unauthorised facilitators, popularly known as ‘goro boys’, to avoid the tedious bureaucratic processes one goes through to  acquire this important document.

But applicants have also accused passport officials of deliberately making the process cumbersome, a situation that compels applicants to pay bribes.

The Passport Office has also been  facing a number of challenges, including constant breakdown of machines, which has led to printing a substantial number of passport booklets to meet demand.

It is no secret that the acquisition of a passport in Ghana is a nightmare, owing to congestion at the various passport application centres, also resulting from the frequent breakdown of equipment.

 This has also led to some applicants having to part with money before their applications are expeditiously processed.

Again, most Ghanaians seeking to acquire passports, especially in the capital, Accra, queue at the Passport Office at dawn and spend long hours before being attended to. It sometimes takes more than two months before applicants receive their passports and some don’t even get any feedback from the Passport Office.

There have been several complaints about the difficulties in processing a passport which has recently led to the introduction of an online processing portal.

A former Director of  Passports, Mr Alexander Ntrakwa, recently complained about the massive bribery and corruption that has bedevilled the Passport Office.

In December 2016,  Ghana launched an online passport application service, aimed at easing the mode of application of passports for Ghanaians while ensuring maximum security for applicants.

The introduction of the system was also to prevent the activities of ‘goro boys’ in the passport application process that often resulted in innocent Ghanaians being defrauded.

The Daily Graphic wonders why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will centralise the issuance of passports in Accra, which has undoubtedly made the application process very cumbersome and time-consuming.

 This has created room for the emergence of passport contractors and their cronies at the various application centres to feed fat on applicants. Poor applicants sometimes have to queue hours on end to obtain their passports, only to be told to go home and come the following day.

 The Daily Graphic would, therefore, wish to suggest  to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to consider decentralising the Passport Office to shorten the long chains of bribery and corruption dangling around the neck of public offices in this country.

We are aware that as of last year, the Foreign Affairs Ministry had set up six application centres in Kumasi, Accra, Ho, Takoradi, Tamale and Sunyani to speed up the process of passport acquisition.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must also extend the processes of reducing the burden on passport applicants to all our foreign missions to make the acquisition of the document hassle-free.