Officials Concerned as 86,000 Passports Remain Uncollected

The Passport Office has expressed concern over the large number of uncollected passports, with approximately 86,000 printed passport booklets gathering dust in offices nationwide. Paul Cudjoe, a Director at the Passport Office Headquarters, highlighted the issue in an interview with Channel One News.

Cudjoe explained that the responsibility of the Passport Office ends once the passport is printed. It is then the applicant’s duty to collect their passport from the designated office. He pointed out that despite the office’s efforts to alert applicants through text messages and emails throughout the application process, many still fail to pick up their passports.

“The duty of the Passport Office ends when the passport is printed. Now that we have decentralised the passport office and have regional offices, passports are transported from the headquarters to the regional offices where applicants are supposed to collect them. We don’t understand why people would go through the entire process but fail to collect their passports,” Cudjoe stated.

He also noted that the use of middlemen complicates the process, as incorrect data is often provided, making it difficult to track applicants. “Most patrons use middlemen to acquire passports, resulting in incorrect telephone numbers and non-existent addresses. This makes it challenging to locate applicants even if a courier service is used for distribution,” he explained.

To address this issue, the Passport Office is embarking on a nationwide media sensitisation campaign to raise awareness. “We are conducting nationwide media engagement, starting with Cape Coast, Takoradi, Sunyani, Ho, and other parts of the country. This issue will be one of our focus areas during the media sensitisation,” Cudjoe added.

Additionally, Cudjoe emphasised the importance of renewing expired passports to avoid application failures. The office hopes that the media campaign will encourage applicants to collect their passports promptly and address the issue of uncollected documents.