John Dumelo, the parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency, has urged the government to decentralize the process of acquiring passports in Ghana.
He said the acquisition of passports needs to be printed from all the regional capitals in order to deal with the issue of middlemen popularly known as ‘goro boys’.
His comments come after the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey sacked some officers at the passport office for aiding the ‘goro boys’ to charge between GH¢2000 and GH¢3000 for passports whereas standard and expedited services should cost GH¢100, and GH¢150 cedis respectively.
The premises of the Passport Office have been inundated by passport applicants who, in their desperation for passports, contract people who seemingly work in league with some officials of the office to facilitate the acquisition of the passports.
In the last few weeks, the Passport Office has been faced with the challenge of having to print a substantial number of passport booklets to meet demands.
John Dumelo speaking on the development said it is quite frustrating, sometimes to pay, and “you have to make a call that before you acquire a passport. I feel it should not be like that.
Why not decentralsied the application and acquisition process?
Why don’t you print in Cape Coast, Kumasi, and North so that you don’t have to go through these processes, he asked.
Source: