'Kuluulu' at passport office

Information reaching The New Crusading Guide from the passport office in Accra indicates that Ghanaians are being denied passports as some people known as ‘connection men’ take a whooping GH¢300 to GH¢500 from applicants who can afford these sums of money. This is happening at a time when the President and his diplomats are enjoying the use of biometric passports. Contrary to allegations that some people in influential positions had ordered for passports to be issued to only people close to the corridors of power, the New Weekend Crusading Guide can report that some powers-that-be at the Controller and Accountant-Generals office have deliberately refused to order papers for the processing of passport because of the biometric one which is going to be introduced soon. The New Weekend Crusading Guide gathered that some people at the passport office, with their collaborators at the Accountant-General’s Department, have been doing business with the few passport papers available. “I think those at the Controller and Accountant-General’s office should be held responsible for not ordering for papers to process passports close to six months now”, an official at the passport office told journalists. A source at the passport office hinted that because biometric passports will be issued next year, officials at the office wanted to make a huge fortune from the few passports left before this year draws to a close. According to a source, “Because we are entering into the biometric passport regime when the ‘kululu’ will stop, people now want to make money from the sale of the few current passports left and get rich quick”. Ordinarily one pays GH¢10 in order to secure a Ghanaian passport but due to the nefarious activities of the faceless officials from both the passport office and the Controller and Accountant General’s, applicants are compelled to pay higher fees. Source: New Weekend Crusading Guide/Ghana