Passport applicants waiting anxiously

Passport applicants are still in the dark as to when their passports will be issued, as the shortage of passport booklets lingers.

“I submitted my application four months ago but I am yet to receive my passport,” a visibly animated applicant who engaged officials of the Passport Application Centre (PAC), Accra, in a heated argument said.

“They gave me two weeks to come for it, but up till now nothing. I came here today (Friday) only be told to come back in another two weeks. That’s all that they keep saying for the past four months,” she added.

Her sentiment typifies the resentment of Ghanaian passport applicants who have been kept in the dark about the failure of officials to issue their passports.

The B&FT on Friday reported that there is a shortage of the passport booklet due to the failure of government to pay Buck Press, the supplier of the booklets, for previous deliveries. Buck Press, according to sources, has held back new supplies because of the debt owed it.

An official of the Centre who spoke to the B&FT said: “We have technical issues so we have not been printing passports for some time now. So though we are processing new applications, they won’t get their passports anytime soon. You can imagine the back-log up till now due to the situation”.

Asked when the situation is expected normalise, the official said: “The situation may normalise in about two months time; we are just waiting”.

Officially, all passport applicants are to purchase a regular form for GH¢50 or an express application form for GH¢100 from selected banks across the country, then fill and submit it with supporting documents to the Passport Application Centre.

The applicants’ biometric details are then taken and a collection date issued. The collection date, per the official arrangement, is one month after submitting a regular application and nine days after submitting an express application.

However, this seemingly clever arrangement is undermined by undue delays and a stressful biometric data-capturing process, which involves applicants queuing for long hours at the Passport Application Centre (PAC) to take their turn.

Officially, the offices of the PAC open between 8:30am and 4pm on weekdays. However, applicants report to the centre as early as 6am to have any chance of getting their data captured.

By Dominick Andoh | B&FT Online | Ghana