What will make you go through the process of acquiring a travelling passport and after it has been issued you refuse to collect it?
This is a question that needs answers as a total of eighty-six thousand passports have been left uncollected at various passports application centres across the country.
This was revealed by Senior Presidential Advisor, Yaw Osafo-Marfo at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. Out of this number, the Greater Accra Region alone has 19,500, Cape Coast has 8,696 and Takoradi has 8,000 ready but uncollected passports as of June, 2024.
Senior Government Advisor on Public Sector Reforms, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, while giving an update on the government project under the National Public Sector Reform Strategy after four years of implementing the project bemoans the cost of these actions to government.
“People are so anxious, and do everything they can to get a passport. After we’ve gone through to produce the passports, they don’t come to collect. And because we subsidize the production of these passports; we are printing them for people at about four dollars when we should be printing them for about a hundred dollars. So, it means the subsidy of all these passports is locked up capital of government.” – he bemoaned.
Additionally, Mr. Osafo-Maafo noted that “there must be some research and I think one of our investors should find out why are people so anxious to access passports, but when completed they don’t come to collect. What must have been the reason?”
Director at Passport Head Office, Mr. Paul Kwaw Kudjo cautioned the public against using middlemen to acquire their passports. He encouraged applicants with challenges to seek assistance from either the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ client service unit or all passport application centers’ client service units across the country.
“Just walk in. The problem of the Ghanaian is trying to use another person. This is not about whether you are educated or not. When you get to the passport office, tell the security men, usually they are police or military men or national security operatives, tell them these are my issues. They will direct you where to go. Go to the right source and seek the right information and support.” Mr. Kwaw Kudjo asserted at the same press briefing event.
Background to the National Public Sector Reform Strategy (NPSRS)
The strategy was launched in August 2018 with a goal of enhancing public service delivery to the citizenry and the private sector.
It covers government agencies including the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, the Birth and Death Registry and the Passport Registration Offices among others, and is being implemented through the office of the senior presidential advisor under the office of the president.
By Job Kwabena Laboja
