By Amin Kef Sesay
On the 6th March 2020 some staff members of the Immigration Department allegedly expressed dissatisfaction publicly over the new arrangement by Managements of the Department and SALPOST for passport application forms to be bought at SALPOST which they asserted has dismantled the passport cartel and in the process the extortion enterprise of poor Sierra Leoneans for which they vowed to do all humanly possible to sabotage the new arrangement.
It was observed that the Immigration Department is still populated with none–staff members (agents) who operate in the open in the full view of the public and management of the Department and some even accused SALPOST of plans to hijack their official function.
Some of the staff is negligent to guide applicants to fill the application forms only to wrongly blame SALPOST of not having the wherewithal to do it claiming that they are the experts.
It was further observed that an application form bought and filled on 27th February 2020 and given a serial number was not processed until the applicant visited the Department on 5th March 2020 only to discover that the application forms of those who applied after him had been processed.
However, an official of SALPOST enlightened this medium that they are not mandated to help customers fill the forms stressing that the form is very simple and easy to fill. He said he wished they had the mandate to help customers fill them reiterating that all the excuses from staff of the Immigration Department are to win public sympathy and reiterated that the passport cartel has been dislodged further underscoring, “they just cannot believe that these changes have really happened as they want to continue with business as usual. It must be noted that the passport mafia is well-entrenched and resistant to change.”
It must be noted that recently, the public highly commended the initiative of the Chief Immigration Officer; Mr. Andrew Jiah Kai Kai to relocate the buying and processing of application forms from the Immigration Department to the Sierra Leone Postal Services (SALPOST) that has seen an end to the massive extortion of customers by the passport cartel and turnaround time of processing and receiving a passport from weeks to seven (7) working days.
Some of the passport applicants who have experienced the new arrangement described the initiative of the Chief Immigration Officer as radical, that unlike in the Immigration Department, there are no longer long queues to buy and process application forms for passports highlighting that their greatest joy and satisfaction is the end to extortion of customers by the passport cartel at the Immigration Department and wished the collaboration with SALPOST had started years ago but opined that it is better late than never.
They added that the new location has not only eased congestion, but has also given customers the opportunity to know about the existence of SALPOST as well as experience its various services and products on offer.
According to the applicants, they are delighted with the ground-breaking initiative of the Chief Immigration Officer asserting that the buying of application forms at SALPOST has made the place busy observing that the new arrangement keeps improving daily to the applause and admiration of the public, acclaimed the Immigration Department for resuscitating an ailing institution like SALPOST and appealed to other Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to emulate the genuine example of the Immigration Department by collaborating and supporting each other.
“We are overjoyed to see the Chief Immigration Officer and the management of SALPOST observing the process as the department has been plagued with corruption over the years. We commend the Immigration Department for resuscitating SALPOST,” they further asserted.
The overall objective of SALPOST is to make services available to the public as people now have the opportunity to have their passports free of hassle.
Also, customers who have experienced the new arrangement intimated this medium that SALPOST charges an additional Le2, 500 for postage delivery and that all the passports have serial numbers for which people commended the Chief Immigration Officer and the Director-General of SALPOST for the worthy venture.
In a related development following growing public outcry against the cost of a passport, its quality and for the agreement to be reviewed/renegotiated with immediate effect, in-depth investigations reveal that the Government, through the Ministry of Internal affairs, signed the passport contract with Netpage in 2013 but that the contract is flawed and not in the best interest of Sierra Leone. Throughout the contract, Sierra Leone is mentioned to benefit only by 5% with Netpage (the contractor) and Thomas De La Rue (the producer) dominating the contract agreement.
Reports continue that the passport agreement did not go through the right process including due diligence and that it was an addendum to the previous agreement for which the people are calling on Government to open the process for other interested parties to bid reiterating that the passport has no value for money.
Furthermore, investigations state that the cost of the passport is too high for the masses compared to other West African countries like Nigeria and Ghana where the cost of passports is 30 and 20 dollars respectively and want it decreased to between 300-400 thousand Leones.
Some concerned citizens lamented, “the price of the passport is extortion of the Government of Sierra Leone and its citizens. It is unacceptable. The Government has no share in the agreement. Those who signed the agreement are not good for this country as we are been cheated. The agreement is draconian and was hastily passed by Parliament.”
They further called for the price of the passport to be in Leones and not dollars, decentralization of the Immigration Department, increase in the number of pages in the passport from 38-42 or 48 pages, that the passport must be of international standard according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) criteria underscoring that the passport must be electronic as is now the trend globally.
