Ayorkor Botchwey Decries Extortion At Passport Office

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey has decried the apparent corruption and specifically extortion at the country’s Passport Office.

According to her, this act is hampering the gains that must be realized in the introduction of the online application system.

Speaking at the Passport Office on Monday, August 14, she said the objective for the introduction of the online system was to eradicate extortion, however, some staff have mastered the act of cheating the system to have their way.

This also, she stated, is thwarting her efforts to bring sanity into the passport system which has since time immemorial been saddled with allegations of extortion by staff.

“The vice President has led the digitalization effort with my support and all the support of my officers. We put together an online system and now the online system is being manipulated so that people can make money off it.”

The visibly furious Minister continued, “I always say that there is too much happening that shouldn’t be happening in the passport acquisition system. If we talk about “goro” people, these “goro” people are outsiders. They do not work on their own because if the “goro” person collects somebody’s money, they need to work with somebody from inside to change the dates…This should stop.”

She said the public tends to blame their challenges in acquiring their passports on time on the Ministry and further blame politicians of corruption, meanwhile, the doers are always the public and civil servants employed to offer these services.

“Public servants who are supposed to be giving public service to Ghanaians… Every time politicians are corrupt meanwhile, it’s some pubic {and} civil servants who will do things that shouldn’t be done”

She said investigations have revealed names of individuals behind it and then announced the dismissal of staff members who have been with the Office for more than a year.

“Some investigations are going on and some names have been mentioned and there are people from outside, a cartel from outside working with people from inside. Anyone who has been here for more than a year please Monday do not come here because you have been changed.”

She said this is meant to instill some level of sanity in the passport acquisition system.