Passport applicants seek answers to shortage of forms
Confusion is reigning at the Passport Office in Accra following the halting of the sale of passport forms at the commercial banks.
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Frustrated prospective applicants have, for some time now, been trooping to the office daily to seek answers to the development but conflicting explanations have aggravated the already tense situation and apprehension continues to grow.
Many people have been moving from one bank to another in search of the forms, either for the renewal of old passports or the acquisition of new ones, but to no avail.
Visits to most banks revealed that the forms were in short supply. The banks visited were the Spintex Road, Madina and Tema Community One branches of Ecobank, the Madina branches of Fidelity Bank and GCB Bank and the Labadi branch of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).
Explanation
While officials of many of the banks could not explain why they had no forms in stock, a customer representative at the National Investment Bank (NIB) outlet on the Spintex Road told the Daily Graphic that the bank had been instructed not to sell the forms, since it was awaiting an announcement of new prices.
The Controller and Accountant General, Ms Grace Francisca Adzroe, however, denied any imminent increase in the price of the forms.
Ms Adzroe told the Daily Graphic that the passport processing forms were still being sold at GHc50, adding, “We have no intention to increase the cost now.”
She said the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) currently had about 135,000 of the forms in stock for sale to the commercial banks at GHc2, from the previous GHc1.45 they paid from 2010 to 2015.
“We only increased the chest price to GHc2 for the banks as a result of the high cost of production. So when they sell at GHc50, they withhold the GHc2 as their cost recovery and pay GHc48 to government coffers,” she explained.
Mr Adzroe declared her intention to call the heads of the banks giving such false reports to the public to order.
Investigation
Some agitated applicants had, on Friday, February 26, poured their frustration on staff of the Passport Office in Accra.
The applicants could not fathom out the hours and even days they would spend to have their biometric data recaptured.
A combined police and military deployment had to come in to normalise the situation.
Current price
A passport form presently sells at GHc50 for the regular service, which takes 15 to 30 working days to be processed, and GHc100 for the express service, which could be processed between three and seven working days.
The acquisition of a Ghanaian passport has become a nightmare for many applicants who have to endure delayed processing.
A frustrated applicant, Mr Francis Kennedy Ocloo, who has been on a search for a form for a fortnight now, told the Daily Graphic that he had been frequenting most of the banks in Accra in the hope of purchasing the form for the renewal of his old passport but without success.
“It’s been a frustrating experience driving through traffic and shopping among banks just to get a form to buy,” he said.
Another dejected customer, Nana Ayensua Ayirebi-Acquah, wondered why the much talked-about online application regime had not been implemented.
Acquisition
The centralisation of passport issuance in Accra has made the application process cumbersome and time-consuming.
Applicants are often left in long queues for several hours in an effort to process their documents.
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That had seen many applicants becoming vulnerable to exploitation by both officials and middlemen popularly referred to as “Goro Boys”.
Director of Passports
The Director of Passports, Mr Alexander Grant Ntrakwa, when contacted, said there was no decision to increase the price of the forms from the present figures.
“While we have no mandate to issue such directives to halt the sale in anticipation of price hikes, we are certain that the Controller and Accountant General did not come to any such agreement with the commercial banks,” he said in a telephone interview with the Daily Graphic.
Biometric processes
Shedding light on the progress of the biometric project which will allow prospective applicants to process and pay for the forms online, Mr Ntrakwa said discussions on the project were inconclusive.
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“Discussions are still ongoing with the banks that are supposed to provide the platform for such services and until that is completed and the agreement signed, it will be difficult to give timelines for the takeoff of the project,” he said.
Congestion
While the public have had to endure congestion at the various processing points, Mr Ntrakwa said the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs office had been made the sole processing point.
“We no longer process applications at the head office, since we have mandated the Tema Station office to receive and process all applications, while the head office concentrates solely on printing and discharging the booklets,” he emphasised.
Mr Ntrakwa, however, expressed the hope that the various stakeholders would conclude talks to allow the online application processes to begin to minimise the challenges associated with passport acquisition.
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