The Administrator of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) Mr. Kobby Akyeampong,  has challenged the Passport Office to do away with all intermediaries popularly called  ‘goro boys’ in the passport acquisition process.

He said the activities of those boys and other so-called protocol officers who take monies from individuals with the promise of providing the passports only dent the image of the office.

Acknowledging, the difficulties in passport acquisition in the country Mr Akyeampong said the office must take practical steps towards resolving the matter. It cannot take several months for a person to acquire a passport, he pointed out.

He made these recommendations when he presented a total of 75 Desktops, 75 Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and 10 Scanners, worth GH₵ 233,625 to the Passports Office on Tuesday, to aid in the rolling out of its online passport application.

Mr. Akyeampong said that “the effort is to help make the process of passport acquisition a seamless one, by eliminating the disturbing role of middlemen, also referred to as “goro boys” who parade themselves as passport contractors and often end up duping unsuspecting applicants.”

He said that although these equipment will help make the process a seamless one, “the onus is also on the Passport Office to create a foolproof system that ensures that applicants can be guaranteed dates for the issuance of passports”.

Mr. Akyeampong lauded the Office for its collaboration with the National Identification Authority in creating a common database that could be used by all important institutions in the country.

Mr. Alexander Grant Ntrakwa, Director of Passport said that “the importance of this equipment to my outfit in terms of service delivery cannot be underestimated. The gesture comes in at an opportune time when my outfit is speeding up efforts to clear backlogs and also implement the electronic application system.

“Hopefully the deployment of the online system of application will begin by the end of the year and this will afford us the opportunity to provide service to Ghanaians even in their respective homes.”