Rotten Deals At Passport Office

…directors involved in shady deals



By Aaron Okyere



A three-month investigation carried out by the Daily Post reveals that the old

passport forms which have been replaced by the biometric forms are being sold by

passport contractors at GH¢300 each to people wishing to obtain Ghanaian passports.



The contractors, after selling the passport forms to the prospective applicants,

help them to fill it and acquire fake birth certificates as well to enable officials

of the Passport Office to process it.

A member of the syndicate, Mr. Rockson of the Birth & Death Registry whose duty it

is to scrutinize the birth certificates does not do so. He simply passes the fake

birth certificates on as authentic. Operatives of National Security whose duty is to

ensure that the details on passport forms are not on what is called the S.L also

pass it on without scrutiny. The Director of Passport at the Passport Office then

appends her signature to the passport, back-dating the Date of Issue to the

pre-biometric days.

This reporter, to double check that this fraudulent system is the order of the day,

went through the process of acquiring one of the old passports in June this year

using a fake name. Within a couple of days, he acquired a passport whose date of

issue is February 2010.

Since the old passport form is illegal, the GH¢300 applicants pay for it go into

the pockets of the members of the syndicate, ie the Director of Passport, Afua

Benneh and her Deputy, Obeng Quakyi, Mr. Rockson of the Birth & Death Registry, the

National Security operatives who handle the S.L, some immigration officers and the

passport contractors.

As a result of the millions of cedis that these people rake in every month from

these nefarious activities, there is no commitment towards processing biometric

passports on time for their prospective owners.

Apart from the billions of cedis that is lost to the state as a result of these

activities, the rate of issue of biometric passports to prospective applicants has

slowed down considerably as the work-load on the few left to handle all the

passports, is heavy.

Another reason why prospective applicants of the biometric passports do not receive

their passports on time is that Mr. Rockson, the man whose duty is to check the

authenticity of the birth certificates, as a result of his indulging in the issuance

of the old passports to rake in money does not find time to go through birth

certificates for biometric passports to enable the process to be completed on time.

Daily Post observed that he spends not more than two hours everyday in dealing with

birth certificates for biometric passports.

A quick check by this paper reveals that though he is supposed to be running shift

with others, so lucrative is the illegal old passport business to him that he has

managed to maneuver to have himself permanently stationed at the Passport Office.

As a result of the lack of interest in processing the biometric forms for their

prospective owners, while the passport costs GH¢50 and processing takes three weeks,

people who pay GH¢100 for ‘express’ and are to receive it within three days do so

after more than a month.

A Ghanaian woman who applied for the biometric passport to enable her travel to

South Africa for medical treatment was on the verge of tears last week because two

weeks after she paid GH¢100.00 to enable her receive it in three days, she is still

being told the passport is not ready.

“Perhaps, they want me to die. I am not going to S.A for pleasure. I need to have a

surgery. Now, the day for the surgery is passed thanks to the people here. What am I

to do now?” she wept when she explained her position to the Daily Post.

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