adminPassport applicants can now download application forms on the Internet and take them to the passport offices after filling them in.
The Registrar-General, Mr Tobaiwa Mudede, said following the digitalisation, queuing to get forms will now be a thing of the past as most people will just download the forms on their own in the comfort of either their homes or offices.
After submitting the forms, applicants, especially those far away from passport offices, used to spend a lot of money and time visiting the passport offices to check whether their passports were out but following the digitalisation, the RG’s office will now send SMS messages to applicants advising them to collect their passports.
We want to believe that once the new system starts operating, the long, winding queues which had become the norm at passport offices will disappear. Individuals used to cash in on the desperate passport applicants who had to buy the forms as well as places on the queues.
Street children used to sleep in the queues and sell the places the following day. Some workers at the RG’s office were also demanding bribes from applicants who wanted to jump the queues.
The ordinary passport costs $50 and takes a month to be processed while an emergency passport which takes three days to be processed costs $250.
Now that the RG’s office has been digitalised, it should take less than a month to process the ordinary passport. The challenge now is for the RG’s offices to ensure that all the bottlenecks have been removed.
The system should be such that passport applicants just walk in to pay and drop their application forms. It is the congestion at the passport offices that was forcing applicants to resort to paying officials at the passport offices bribes so they could jump the queues. Now that the forms are easily accessible, it should be just a few applicants who have no access to the Internet who should be visiting the passport offices for the forms.
The RG’s efforts should now be directed at ensuring that the passports are processed in the shortest possible time.
Mr Mudede said the new website from which applicants can download the forms was free from abuse because it has security features. He said the application form can only be printed after it has been filled so it cannot be abused by those that used to sell the forms.
The RG’s office should embark on an educational campaign to explain the new system so that applicants are not duped by cunning individuals that have access to the Internet.
Unscrupulous individuals could soon be cashing in on the unsuspecting applicants by making them pay for the forms. What these individuals would simply do is to fill the forms on behalf of the applicants and then make them pay.
We want at this juncture to commend the RG’s office for taking such a giant move which we are confident will go a long way in improving the office’s service delivery efficiency.
It is our fervent hope that other Government departments are working in the same direction so that at the end of the day members of the public enjoy fast and efficient service delivery from all Government departments.
Online Reporter