EDITORIAL COMMENT : Passport office sets new top-of-the-line routine administration

IN the almost four years since Zimbabwe switched to a modern e-passport application system, more than 1,6 million have been issued from a rapidly increasing number of provincial, district and regional offices in some countries.

The revolution in service was a multiple one.

First, an end to the long queues and the very long processes, that could easily chew up a day so requiring applicants to queue from before dawn.

Also gone were those interminable hours standing in corridors of what had been temporary pre-fabricated accommodation for the passport office in the early 1980s, a misery for both the staff and those applying.

Applicants only faced the full horrors once a decade, unlike staff who were there every working day.

And even when the complex manual process had been completed and receipts issued, there was still the long wait for the actual passport, and again some difficult queuing at the passport office on the actual day of delivery.

And once someone was working or studying outside the country, the complications became almost insurmountable.

The whole mess was obviously quite high on the “must fix” list when the Second Republic came into office. Although not everything could be fixed in one fell swoop, the Registrar General and, the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage were obviously expected to move fast, with the Finance Minister coming in at the end to make sure that the fee covered costs, without a profit, and that the systems were efficient so the costs were at a minimum.

By the end of 2021 the new system was in place and being phased in and went into full replacement mode in February 2022. A systematic programme of opening ever more offices across the country was put in place. A start was made to see the e-passport offices at the busiest embassies, with the basic biometric data collection at all embassies so that even if a person in the diaspora had to use a family member to collect the passport in Zimbabwe, this would be efficient and quick.

So successful has the new programme been that while more than half of Zimbabwean passport holders still have to use the system for a replacement passport as their old one expires.

The bureaucratic and organisational nightmare that once obtained is now a fading memory. Zimbabweans have come to expect that their passport office will be efficient, fast, safe and secure, and that by the time they replace an expired passport, it will be even better.

This is part of the new standards set by the Second Republic, that Zimbabweans should not have to deal with the second best or cope with obsolete and outmoded systems or other horrors.

While the queue-free, or almost queue-free systems at the passport offices were the first to be introduced, generally speaking, all Zimbabweans want all their interaction with the Government to be of the same standard, and have started to expect this sort of efficiency from the Second Republic.

We still have some way to go, although National ID cards, including duplicates for lost cards, driving licences and other absolutely necessary documents are now easier to get. But we all want the sort of standards we have now dealt with at the Passport Office at every other Government office, and perhaps in time even being able to at least get the duplicates at a single office, so if your house catches fire and burns everything there is no need to halt one’s life for a couple of months.

The Registrar General and the backing parent Home Affairs Ministry do have to deal with every Zimbabwe citizen and permanent resident several times during their lives, and since this is a set of rational legal requirements, it is good that this office and ministry have set the standard from the beginning with the passport office.

Others must also follow the standards. This should not be difficult.

One leader in the field is Zimra. No one likes paying taxes, but the idea of queuing up for hours to pay Zimra was always an exceptionally unpleasant experience.

Modern Zimra systems mean that most taxpayers can register electronically and calculate and pay their taxes electronically, without even greeting a tax officer let alone meeting one, and that staff now have time to deal with special questions and sorting out complications.

This is one reason why the Government is so determined to regularise and register all businesses, formal and informal, since this can be done with very little fuss and bother. Business will be easier to do legitimately and at the same time it will be far easier and efficient to pay whatever taxes might be required.

We need the new standards at NSSA and other Government social programmes, with farmers already being moved onto data bases as they register and receive inputs, this at present being a back-up but likely to become the main programme in time, the farmer just waving their smart phone and being lined up.

The gains by the people are obvious, but there are also major gains by the Government, from instant auditing that makes the remnants of corruption so hard to maintain, and the closing of manual loopholes and discretion also slashes corruption opportunities, as those who collect customs duties have found. You cannot bribe a computer.

All this upgrade in service delivery is part of the social progress to being a well-managed modern country where everything works and works well.