Government withdrawing diplomatic passports of former state officials – Minister

Government has begun withdrawing the diplomatic passports of former government officials and former Members of Parliament(MPs), the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway has disclosed.

This comes in the wake of three current and a former Members of Parliament who have been barred from entering the UK for indulging in visa fraud.

They include: Richard Acheampong, MP for Bia East in the Western Region; Joseph Benhazin Dahah, MP for Asutifi North (Ntotroso) in the Brong Ahafo Region; Johnson Kwaku Adu, MP for Ahafo Ano South West in the Ashanti Region; and George Boakye, former MP for Asunafo South in the Brong Ahafo Region.

A correspondence forwarded to the Speaker of Parliament by the UK government through the UK High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Jon Benjamin, said ” The British High Commission (BHC) would like, in confidence, to bring the following matters to your attention, regarding the apparent involvement of three serving MPs and one former MP in visa fraud directly affecting the United Kingdom.”

The confidential letter sighted by this website said the afore-mentioned MPs violated UK visa regulations on different occasions by either providing false information for their visa applications or facilitating the visas of some relatives who overstayed their visas in the UK.

“Administrative measures have been taken to ensure that the Honourable members mentioned here will most likely not be granted visas for the UK within the next 10 years, the letter addressed to Prof Mike Oquaye said.

The letter also inquired from the Hon. Speaker whether and why it is legitimate for ex-MPs to continue to possess and use diplomatic passports, in some cases for many years after they have ceased to be parliamentarians?

“In that regard, we would humbly like to ask, Mr Speaker, what procedures are in place to ensure that diplomatic passports are removed forthwith from all those 133 former Members who have just ceased to be MPs?

However, Madam Shirley Ayokor Botchway reacting to the development in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM said a process is already in place to strip of past government officials of their Diplomatic Passports.

“Like all other passports the duration is five years, however once an MP is no longer in the service of the state, that MP is no longer entitled to the use of the passport.

“Once a person is no longer employed by government, the passport should be returned. As a ministry we have put an advert in all the newspapers asking former members of the immediate past government as well as all other former MPs to return their diplomatic passports. A good number of them have done so, and they continue to do so. So as soon as it gets to a point where we believe we have given them enough time we will take steps to ensure that who ever has a diplomatic passport in their possession will not be able to use it. And if means informing all the Embassies we’ll do so that these are passports that are no longer valid. And if it also need to do so at exit or entry points we’ll do so.”