RE: Ghana Embassy In Washington & Customer Service

Barely two years now that Ambassador Fritz K. Poku assumed office, the Washington Mission has undergone a sea change under the personal integrity, drive and the leadership of its Head of Mission. There have been several initiatives right from the beginning including encouragement to all officers irrespective of their status not to minimize their contribution to the work of the Mission. “The piccolo player” as it were, in an orchestra of big and huge instruments of music would always be looked for. Insistence on discipline, punctuality, loyalty and above all a Customer Service friendly attitude have since been the hallmark of the Ghana Washington Mission. There has thus been a qualitative and quantitative leap in the issuance of Ghanaian passports, as well as visas to prospective travelers to Ghana.

It is important to note, in this regard, that the Washington Mission processes applications, not only from all over the U.S. but also Central America and the Caribbean. Currently, the waiting time of applications for the processing of missing Ghana passports is one week, reduced considerably from six weeks. Renewal of Ghana passports is done within three days, also reduced from two weeks. Applicants who come to the Mission with genuine cases are issued Ghana passports within thirty minutes of waiting time. Similarly, the turn around time for processing of visas is now quite phenomenal. Rush visas are issued in a day and normal visas are issued within two days as opposed to the normal five working days.

The granting of visas is a privilege and carries with it certain prerequisites and obligations. The onus lies on the applicant to exercise due care in providing the required information. Delays occur when applicants fail to properly answer the questions on the forms, and, in some cases, submit applications without passports, processing fees or photographs. The absence of crucial information causes some delays in the processing of applications. It has also been observed that all those applicants who submit their visa applications with ordinary return postage, instead of trackable prepaid overnight express mail such as DHL, Fedex, UPS experience delays. It takes about 7 days to complete the process by a return ordinary mail. In the case of priority mail, it is about 3-4 working days. The Washington Mission has absolutely no control over the US postal system. It is therefore up to the applicant to use an expedited mail service to take advantage of our improved service delivery.

We also need to educate the public that it is not a normal procedure in visa processing for an applicant to phone to check on the status of his application. A visa officer is not obliged to divulge such privileged information for mainly security reasons. It follows that if an applicant has no automatic right to check on the status of his visa application, the question of a third party doing so does not even arise. No embassy on this planet will willingly give out information concerning an applicant to a third party over the phone. Refusal of the Embassy to accede to such requests is therefore no evidence of inefficiency or insensitivity.

On the contrary, it evinces the Mission’s high sense of responsibility and security consciousness. The Embassy dismisses outright the claims by one or two Ghanaians as non-issues and suspects that the allegations were merely designed and concocted to bring the Mission into disrepute for purely personal interests. The Embassy has information that some visa contractors or connection men indulge in this habit ostensibly to promote investment. When their dubious schemes fail, then the Embassy becomes a whipping boy.

We dare such complainants to provide the particulars of the so-called investors. We also challenge them to provide us with names of Embassies in the USA, where you can freely phone and speak with an official on the line to collect information on visa applications of third parties. God help Ghana, when in America, compatriots masquerading as promoters of investment exploit genuine travelers for personal monetary gains and resort to internet publications to denigrate the Embassy in order to fulfill their illegal ventures.
The current policy at the Embassy is to raise awareness among our compatriots about the need to be wary of confident tricksters and charlatans, be they in the Mission or elsewhere. We reiterate our advice that the doors of the Washington Mission are open to all and on no account, should an applicant for either visa or passport go through intermediaries to obtain first class services. The Embassy is pleased and indeed proud to inform the public that its expedited services has earned it high regard even among US Federal Agencies, including the State Department, Homeland Security, and the White House Travel Office, as the best organized and efficient African Embassy in Washington DC. This is not by accident, it is as a result of the manner in which we deal with requests for visas, in a very timely fashion.
Another area of concern is that most of the phone calls received at the Mission are on mundane issues which can easily be accessed on the Mission’s website - www.ghanaembassy.org. Also, the telephone system has prompts on button 203 which provides all basic information on visa and passport applications without going through the telephonist. In view of these and other efficient and effective measures put in place but which need to be sustained, it is being considered indeed to introduce the practice which obtains in even better endowed Embassies where one has to pay $2.10 a minute (e.g. British Consulate in New York: www.britainusa.com) to speak to a person at the Consular Section. In this manner, we hope to stem the tide of unnecessary and sometimes frivolous calls.

Further to this, as the Head of Mission announced at the last COGA Dinner Dance, regular quarterly meetings have been instituted with the Ghanaian community in the USA so as to keep the latter abreast with developments at home as well as programmes and initiatives of the Mission. Thus, beginning this year, the Washington Mission held its first quarter meeting with the Council of Ghanaian Associations (COGA) of the Washington metropolitan area on Friday, March 31st 2006. These quarterly meetings will be complemented with town hall meetings to foster continuous dialogue with the Ghanaian communities. Indeed, in the States which the Head of Mission has visited throughout the USA in the Embassy’s outreach programs, meetings with Ghanaian Associations have always been part of the programme.

Valuing the care the Embassy provides the public and the latter’s feedback, the Administration has placed a “Complaints Box” visibly at the main entrance of the Mission since January 2006 to collate reactions from the public on our service delivery. This measure has helped the Mission to appraise the performance of its staff and to improve its services. We hope that well-meaning Ghanaians would avail themselves of this opportunity to make useful suggestions Let it also be stated that, the Mission’s Library has been closed to the public well over a year now. Thus anybody who claims to have visited it and found it to be in a mess is imaging things or being fed with misleading information from his so-called friends in the Embassy. The library project features as part of the general rehabilitation and refurbishment of the premises. Work is soon to begin on the rehabilitation of the entire premises of the Embassy.

We may also add that, the Mission has plans to build a new Reception for visitors to the Embassy. A bright purposefully furnished Reception will constitute a good reference and holding area and serve as a good introduction of the people and culture of Ghana to numerous visitors of the Mission. All personnel dealing directly with the public have been provided with identification badges to facilitate the monitoring of their performance by the public. Additionally, the Mission will commence shortly the issuance of National I.D. cards in tandem with maintaining a data base of all Ghanaians resident in the United States, after the public education of our compatriots on the importance of the exercise to national development.
The Embassy has also not overlooked the need for the computerization of its consular activities and services. The entire processing of passports and visas at the Washington Mission are currently done manually. It is laborious and time consuming and it will serve well the public and our own purposes to computerize the system. However we believe that unless we streamlined the nebulous system of work that existed in the Mission, computerization would not yield the needed results. We have therefore initiated discussions with Ghanaian led organizations in the USA, some of which have submitted proposals for the computerization of the services of the Mission. Hopefully we shall conclude discussions on the issue soon to buttress the Mission’s strenuous efforts. In line with the foregoing initiatives and plans, the Mission has carried out periodic in-house training sessions on customer relations, and security awareness on a quarterly basis for all staff and on a monthly basis for the staff at the Consular Section. The Administration has witnessed great improvement in work ethics and attitude of the staff generally. But a few have remained recalcitrant, trapped in their old ways of doing things. As it is well known, old habits die hard. We are nevertheless satisfied that past practices tainted or vitiated with corruption and other illegal self serving ways have been put behind us. The current policy direction embarked upon by the Embassy since the assumption of office of Ambassador Poku was deemed necessary to satisfy the terms of his mandate and to meet public expectations. Ironically it appears that those who had hitherto accepted the status quo ante are the ones who seem to be peddling unfounded and unguarded allegations against the Embassy at a time when services have witnessed great improvements. The Administration is convinced that the allegations were aimed deliberately to frustrate the current changes going on in the Washington Mission.

Coincidentally, two particular articles were posted on the internet at the very time that Circulars had been issued to all local staff to submit Handing Over notes to the Head of Chancery in readiness for a comprehensive change of schedules at the Mission.

Obviously a cabal which had privatized the consular services in collusion with those authors saw their “gold mine” threatened. About the same time, the Embassy uncovered links between some employees of the Mission and a few outsiders whom the former had instigated to picket at the Embassy in April 2006 on non-issues. The objective was to scuttle the anticipated changes by whipping up animosity and indignation against the management of the Mission. By this, they hoped to remain at their old schedules to continue to have a field day. The matter is still under investigation and when completed disciplinary action would be meted out accordingly.

Clearly, the burning desire by the Head of Mission to revamp the work of the Mission and improve service delivery through new tighter rules and regulations exposed the weaknesses and ills of the old system as well as threatened a few malfeasants whose aim was to upstage and outsmart the system within. Contrary to their doomsayer’s scenario, the Administration was and remains emboldened to pursue the reforms within the Mission in order to maximize its service delivery.

The Administration stands ready, solid and focused to confront any fresh challenges. We hope that the cohorts of the few suspected deviant employees within the Mission and their so called friends outside would reconsider their stereotypical view of work and practices of Diplomatic Missions, particularly the Embassy in Washington.

It is finally unfortunate that some recent articles which attacked the Embassy put a political spin on their contentions and unwittingly betrayed the political bias of the authors. The innuendos of the writers calculated to paint the Washington Mission as a political party outpost and to besmirch the character of the Mission’s management with party colours, ended by exposing the mischievous writers as ignorant, gullible and least concerned about the highest interest of mother Ghana. The Head of Mission and his committed staff, who are seasoned diplomats are blazing a new trail by turning the Embassy into a client/citizen service outfit which serves the public with efficiency, respect and dignity. Our unbridled desire is to work tirelessly and to serve selflessly our country with honor and distinction. We will therefore not be deflected from our new policy drive and direction by downright lies, fabrications, and misleading articles on the internet.

The crucial challenge now is to sustain and build upon the successes chalked by this new policy drive and direction. To tease the skeptics and people of ill will out of their mischief, the Embassy proudly makes public the following statistics and graphic illustration of its performance covering the last six months (January 2006 to June 2006) :

VISAS ISSUED

 January
 Number  Amount ($)
 Multiple	  428	  34,250.00
 Multiple Rush	  175	  19,250.00
 Single	          640	  32,010.00
 Single Rush	  189	  15,120.00
 Total	        1,432	$100,630.00 
 February 
 Multiple	   514	  41,120.00
 Multiple Rush	   139	  15,290.00
 Single 	           806	  40,300.00
 Single Rush	   134	  10,720.00
 Total	          1,593	 $107,430.00
 March
 Multiple	   650	   52,000.00
 Multiple Rush	   171	   18,810.00
 Single 	           694	   34,740.00
 Single Rush	   194	   15,520.00
 Total	         1,709	   $121,070.00
 April
 Multiple	   350	  28,000.00
 Multiple Rush	   150    16,500.00
 Single 	    400	  20,000.00
 Single Rush	   450	  36,000.00
 Total	         1,350	$100,500.00 
 May 
 Multiple	  450	   36,000.00
 Multiple Rush	  150	   16,500.00
 Single 	  900	   45,000.00
 Single Rush	  175	   14,000.00
 Total	        1,675	$111,500.00
 June
 Multiple	   700	    56,000.00
 Multiple Rush	   276	    30,360.00
 Single 	   800 	    40,000.00
 Single Rush	   687	    54,960.00
 Total	         2,463	 $181,320.00

*Total Revenue received from January to June 2006 was: $722,450.00

Gratis Visas Issued

Month Number
January 130
February 174
March 150
April 120
May 210
June 135
Total 919

PASSPORTS PROCESSED

Month Renewal Missing Total Amount ($)
January 190 39 229 21,440.00
February 169 21 190 16,880.00
March 370 36 406 35,360.00
April 244 20 264 22,720.00
May 309 38 347 30,800.00
June 201 26 210 20,240.00
Grand Total 1,483 180 1,663 147,440.00

PASSPORT APPLICATION FORMS SOLD

 Month	Number	Total
 January	164	3,280.00
 February	228	4,560.00
 March	292	5,840.00
 April	339	6,780.00
 May	313	6,260.00
 June	359	7,180.00
 Grand Total	    1,695	     33,900.00 

Total Passport Revenue from January to June 2006 was $181,340.00
The total Revenue derived from visas and passports issued from January to June 2006 was therefore $903,790.00. If proceeds from Travel Certificates, Dual Nationality, Authentication, Attestations, and Endorsements are added, the Consular Revenue over the period was over $1000,000.00. (One million dollars) This achievement has no precedent and indicates the highest amount of proceeds ever recorded. These happy outcomes are as a result of the reforms instituted and due to the commitment of the hardworking officers and employees of the Mission who are willing to move with the changes.
Issued by : Ghana Embassy, Washington, DC
July 5, 2006