Huge challenges at Passport Office

Front Page: Daily Graphic, April 15, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
BARELY three weeks into the launch of Ghana’s biometric passport, the Passport Office is facing major difficulties in coping with the large number of applicants seeking to acquire the new passport.
Although it is still within the time-frame for setting up passport application centres in seven areas, the centre at the Passport Office, which was initially set up to handle diplomatic, service and other dignitary passport processing, is currently the only operational one.
The main Accra centre is due to come on stream next week, to be followed by that of Sunyani the week after. Other areas earmarked to have the initial centres are Kumasi, Tamale, Ho and Sekondi/Takoradi.
Under the arrangement, the centres are to receive and process applications, after which they will be submitted to the Passport Office for vetting and issuance.
When the Daily Graphic visited the centre yesterday, anxious applicants had gathered both outside and inside the premises in a disorderly manner, with some security men taking advantage of the situation with the view to assisting people to acquire the passports.
It came to light that there were some applicants who had valid passports but had gone to change them for biometric ones.
Apart from the data capturing which slowed the process, people with valid machine readable passports had also joined the fray to have the new passports.
The Deputy Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister, Mr Chris Kpodo, who was on a surprise visit to the centre, in the company of the sector Minister, Alhaji Mohammad Mumuni, had to order a policeman in uniform out of the place when the policeman claimed he was there to visit a friend.
Touched by the anxiety and agony of the applicants, Alhaji Mumuni directed the Passport Office to provide tents and seats for them.
He described the situation on the ground as worrying and disturbing and urged the directors of the office to review and respond effectively to the challenges.
He was hopeful that when the Accra main centre came on stream, it would reduce the pressure on both officials and applicants and the challenges in the system.
He urged those with valid passports to continue to use them until they expired, since they could still use them until November 2015.
The Director of Passports, Ms Afua Benneh, described the challenges as teething problems associated with the start of every project and gave the assurance that the security system would also be quickly reviewed to sanitise the system.