Senior Government Advisor on Public Sector Reforms, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has revealed that over 86,000 passports remain uncollected at the Passport Office.
“Some of the applicants use middlemen to complete the passport application form, so if you call, the numbers they provide on the forms, it does not go through,” he said.
He highlighted challenges where applicants use middlemen with unreachable contact information, complicating communication efforts.
Due to unreliable applicant data, Mr. Osafo-Maafo emphasized the need for a robust system to capture accurate information.
This, he suggested, would enable efficient courier delivery of passports for a fee.
“What we need to do is to ensure that we build a strong system that can capture reliable data of passport applicants so that the passports can be delivered through courier services to them for a fee,” he said.
Speaking at a Meet-the-Press event in Accra on Wednesday [June 19, 2024], Mr. Osafo-Maafo provided updates on the Public Sector Reform for Results Project (PSRRP), funded by a $35 million credit facility from the World Bank, which was later reduced to $24 million.
The PSRRP, implemented from 2019-2023, aimed to enhance service efficiency and accountability across 13 ministries and agencies.
“The passport application ecosystem has improved significantly. Since August 2023, the Passport Office has been able to process and print about 700,000 passport applications, including 100,000 passport application backlogs as against the annual average target of 500,000 printed booklets,” he added.
Under this initiative, improvements at the Passport Office included setting up new biodata capturing booths to reduce waiting times and processing backlogs.
Additionally, the project facilitated advancements such as modern video conferencing facilities at the Public Services Commission and the Office of the Head of Civil Service.
These enhancements enabled over 5,000 interviews in 2022 and 4,000 in 2023, along with clearing 14,657 staff promotion backlogs since 2021.