Can Ghana Ever Overcome The Activities Of “Connection Men” In Passport Acquisition?

Acquiring a biometric passport appears to be as simple as outlined by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. After filling the form and submitting it together with relevant documents at the passport application Centre.

The next step is for applicant to take a digital photograph and biometric data finger prints and then the applicant receives a submission receipt which contains the passport collection date. Depending on the type of form that an applicant purchases it takes about one to two weeks for one to receive the passport. Contrary to this official procedure, acquiring a passport is far from what it ought to be.

Ms. Anita, a nurse at the Amasaman hospital, said: 'I got to the passport office here at the Tema station at 06:00 hours and I was told I could not submit it because they had already received the applications for the day'.

After lamenting for some time, she was approached by one young and desperate man. He said 'Maame nurse, I can help you submit your passport and get it after one week at a small fee. The worried nurse, all of a sudden got interested in the man's proposal. Wanting to repeat the story of her ordeal since morning, the man interrupted again and added with two hundred Ghana cedis only, he stressed, I can quickly help you go through this process within the next 30minutes so that you can go back to work'.

According to this man, those who want to submit application forms need to get there latest by 05:00 hours to be able to be counted among the 120 applications which he said were received daily. When I asked the man if he was working with the office, he said no but went ahead to recount the numerous number of people he had successfully helped to acquire biometric passports. In a bit to fully convince me, he added that even foreign nationals, largely neighboring West Africans have successfully secured Ghanaian passports with his assistance as the 'Middleman'.

Speaking to another applicant who was unlucky to make it for the 120 applicants for the day, Kofi said, he stays at Kwabenya a suburb of Accra. He said he got to the office premises at 5.00 am. Kofi said he had to hang around the premises to check if he could be a bit lucky but since she did not know anybody working at the office, he had to go back home very disappointed.

Several applicants look so frustrated, disappointed and confused at this simple process of acquiring a national identification document. It has almost become a norm that one must know someone before one gets easy access to the office, otherwise one has to pay extra money to get things going smoothly. Since the introduction of this biometric process, the main entrances of these collection centers nationwide are greeted with many applicants sitting under mounted canopies on the premises waiting for 'Middlemen' who take advantage of and exploit them at the expense of the clear objectives of this biometric process.

It is worthy to note that whiles some people were at the premises for collection purposes, others were waiting for people; in fact they were waiting for their 'connection men' also called 'Middleman' to fast-track the process for them.

Drawing closer to the main building, I noticed that there was another door at the back of the office where 'Middlemen' pass to see the directors or their cronies on behalf of their clients. To my utter-most surprise that door is guarded by officials. One therefore cannot easily enter the premises as you definitely need to be accompanied by officials to get through to the hall. And guess what? In the office the staff is busily processing the daily 120 forms plus the forms of people who know someone there.

Everyday witnesses a gradual process of weakness of the much publicized reforms to deal with middlemen whiles simultaneously increasing the opportunities for helpless applicants to be exploited on a daily basis. And for those who try to question the wrong process, people look at you so strangely, perhaps thinking whether you are a visitor to Ghana. Systemic corruption is corruption which is primarily due to weaknesses of an organization or a process. It can be contrasted with individual officials or agents who act corruptly within the system.

It has become the norm and so perpetrators of such offences do not care a hoot. The question they ask is what you (who are requiring the service) can do to them. Whom do you report such behaviours to? And even if you manage to report, nothing gets done and nothing changes. Ghanaians obviously deserve better than using our tax resources to set up a system that will further exploit them for personal and selfish gains.

It is inconceivable that in the 21st century, citizens have to go through such hell before securing this basic document. It is obvious that the system approach to dealing with 'connection men' in acquiring a biometric passport has failed miserably and the earlier it's reviewed the better for the country's efforts at fighting against corruption especially among public office holders. The time to for our authorities is answer the question of the country's willingness and ability to eliminate these illegal actors is now!

By
Edusei Boateng
Media- Public Accountability,Ghana
024 222 4708 /020 435 2820 [email protected]