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The backlog of about 17,000 passports may be cleared soon, with the installation of two new printing machines at the Passport Office, About 4,000 backlog of passports were printed over the weekend and the installation of the machines is expected to meet the rising demand of passport applications.

New machines

The installed machines were used to reduce a backlog of passports from 21,000 to about 17,000 over the weekend which is indicative of the fact that a substantial number of passports can be printed within a day.

This development, according to authorities at the Passport Office, was a big relief given the recent pressure and stampede on the premises of that office following the breakdown of the old machines which made it impossible to print the required number of passports.

Some unscrupulous persons known as ‘goro’ boys who have besieged the premises of the Passport Office took advantage of the situation to exploit desperate passport applicants.

The new machines have the capacity to print 20 passports at a time unlike the old machines that printed only five passports.

Order

Since last week, there has been sanity at the Passport Office given the absence of the many applicants and ‘goro’ boys who besieged the entrance of the office as was the case in the last few weeks.

During a visit by the Daily Graphic it was observed that only a few people were within the premises unlike about two weeks ago when applicants who could not have their passports delivered to them on their appointed date, in their frustration, had besieged the office.

Foreign minister

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Hanna Tetteh, in an interview, indicated that the former Foreign Affairs building, which was gutted by fire few years ago, would be renovated to serve as a new passport application centre to reduce the pressure at the current passport office at Ridge.

She stated that the proposed new passport application centre would have facilities such as a banking hall with 10 stations where applicants could have their biometric data captured at the same time, adding that: “Once we do that we wiould take the bulk of passport applications outside of the passport office.”

She explained that although the project was captured in the budget, she was in talks with the Minister of Finance to explore the possibility of getting a facility which would be serviced using her ministry’s internally-generated funds to get the project done sooner rather than later.

‘Goro’ boys

Authorities at the Passport Office have vowed to clamp down on so-called middlemen popularly known as ‘goro’ boys who parade themselves as passport contractors.

The Director of Passports, Mr Alexander Grant Ntrakwa, upon his assumption of office last August, served notice of his intention to clean the image of the office by weeding out such characters.