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National Security to fight ‘goro’ boys at Passport office

Hanna Tetteh has conceded the shady dealings at the Passport Office and the hassle Ghanaians go through to get a passport.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Hannah Tetteh

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Hannah Tetteh has stated that, the ministry is working together with the national security to wage a relentless war against ‘goro’ boys who parade themselves as ‘passport contractors’ on the premises of the office.

In line with that, the ministry and the national security will conduct random swoops on the premises.

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.

Hannah Tetteh said, it is putting measures in place to clean the image of the office by putting a stop to the unnecessary stampede that often accompanied the demand for passports.

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“So like I've been telling you, if you give your money to some crook (you know he is a crook) to get you a passport, don't cry foul,” she added.

She said the office was working hard to clear the huge backlog of passports stating that it will take a month to clear the backlog at the passport office. She said so far a significant number of the passports had been cleared.

The Passport Office has been faced with the challenge of having to print a substantial number of passport booklets to meet demands due to a breakdown of machines.

That situation causes stampede at the precincts of the office because applicants who are given dates to come for their passports get there disappointed, as they are told to return on another date because passports could not get printed.

Explaining the difficulty the office was facing, she said it had to rely on just two machines to print passport booklets because the others had broken down. But she was quick to add that more machines were being installed to speed up the process.

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She, however, noted that, the ministry have overhauled the process for issuing Diplomatic Passports.

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