There’s Something Fundamentally Wrong At The Passport Office-Ablakwa

There is something fundamentally wrong at the passport office that requires urgent answers from the director and all persons in management positions, Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs committee of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has stated.

Mr Ablakwa who is the Member of Parliament for the people of North Tongu in the Volta region wonders why it had to take the minister to descend from her ministry to engage in an open intervention, altercation and ‘emotive ministerial reaction’ for the right thing to be done at the passport office.
“Did it have to take the minister to descend from her ministry to engage in that outburst and the firing of people on site?” he queried.

According to him, the sector minister could not entirely be faulted for her reaction given the prevailing circumstances but pointed out what he considered problematic about the minister’s approach.
“Yes, we all want to see tough and decisive leadership and that is why I am restraining myself from criticizing or condemning the minister because when you have people you have put in charge not doing their work, that is what it will come to. The minister should have taken notice that certain directors were not doing their work properly and could have reshuffled them or reassigned them elsewhere”, he added.
Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa was reacting to the outburst by the Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, during a recent visit to the passport office, a sprawling centre of corruption and corrupt practices that continue to hinder the swift acquisition of passport by the citizenry.
The Minister openly expressed her disgust at the development and gave an instant order for staff who have been seconded to the passport office for over a year to end their service.
She also hinted about an ongoing probe and the submission of names of persons found to be engaged in corrupt acts.
“This cannot continue, I have always said that there was too much happening here which should not be part of the passport acquisition system. If we talk about ‘goro people’ (middlemen), this ‘goro people’ are outsiders, they do not work on their own… and this should stop. The Vice President has led the digitalisation effort with my support to put in place an online system to promote efficiency, now the online system is being manipulated, so that people can make money from it. There is an investigation ongoing and some names have come up,” she emphasized.