Ghana Embassy In Berlin A Complete Nuisance

Hanna Tetteh, Foreign Affairs Minister

I wish to bring to your attention the machinations of the Ghana Embassy Berlin. One wonders what kind of services the staff renders at all. Applicants for visas and passports can call for hours on end. Calls made are not picked up and even when they are, satisfactory answers are not guaranteed, since the calls are redirected to a clueless staff member.

We've also had to deal with their rude tones and bossy nature while they demand respect and measured tone from us at the same time. In simple terms, they demand to be treated like kings. They make things appear like applicants are being done a favour and that they're in "charge". If this is not arrant nonsense, then I don't know how else to describe it. They are there to serve in the first place.

Let them get it into their thick heads that they'll never be treated with respect as long as they don't do what they're supposed to do. Those 'services' they 'render' to us are not for free if they care to know.

Their website is not even up to date. They even had to be reminded that a fax number provided on the site wasn't working, not to even talk about a dead link. An answering machine is not even available. What use would it serve anyway even if they had one?

Imagine how long my application for "express passport" has lasted. The fee for the passport was transferred into the account of the embassy more than 2 months ago. The passport form came in a month later (not after so many calls, letters and faxes). The form was filled and sent back to the embassy and I've still been waiting for a month now.

To crown it all, a worker who picked up my call recently is now telling me the form was not properly filled and will have it sent back to me (after so many unanswered calls and waiting for so long).

According to him, I couldn't get anybody to sign as a witness. (What nonsense! It isn't like I am applying for a passport for the first time. I even attached my expired passport, a copy of the expired passport and a birth certificate to the form). What else do I need a "witness" for? He also claims I did not attach a copy of the receipt. (This is not true. I did attach a copy). I wonder what they were doing all those weeks.

Let's just assume the observations he made above are all true. Does it mean nobody would have had the sense and decency to inform me if I hadn't called? To make matters worse, I walk around with no form of identification. Just imagine I get controlled by the police! I might go unscathed, but not after I have raised so many suspicions. I can't even send money since they demand to see my passport.

I'm even tempted to think that the citizens of Ghana here will come off well without them. To describe them as incompetent would be an understatement, with due regards to the issues raised above.

I guess USELESS is the right word. Why should they be there if they aren't fulfilling the very purposes for which they were employed? Is it not a waste of taxpayers' money? Are they overwhelmed with their tasks? How many applications do they have to deal with on daily basis anyway? How many of them have to do with passports, how many with visas? Amazingly, these two happen to have sections in the building accommodating the embassy. Are they trying to tell us that they have too much at hand during their 30 hr a week activities? It is sad that incompetent bunch leave only to be replaced by another similar incompetent lot if not worse.

I hope those in charge are listening. Resentments have built up towards them in the past years. Unfortunately, people have had no way of venting their spleen and this has led them to believe they are untouchables or that perhaps they are doing things right. I know of a lady who had to renew her passport.

You won't believe what this poor woman went through in their hands. She had to always buy call cards worth 10 Euros. She was usually placed on hold when her calls get picked with the assurance that she was being redirected. She held on for minutes only to be told to call later.

It was always the same procedure until she wastes her credits. She buys another one and the whole thing starts anew. Just imagine some of us didn't have the privilege of having flat rates. Your guess is as good as mine.

Let them begin to do the right thing before people storm that building one day out of anger. You don't know what a person is capable of doing until he is pushed to his limits.

A word to the wise

What are your experiences concerning this matter? Readers should feel free to express their opinions.