Making passport issuance hassle-free
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
The hassle a passport seeker faces is an old story told again and again but the authority concerned has never bothered to bring an end to it or, at least, reduce its intensity. All procedural complexities in the issuance of passports, seemingly, have been created deliberately to make room for speed money to come to the officials concerned easily. Thus, the department of passport and immigration has had the privilege of securing a place among the highly corruption-infested government offices. All those involved in the process of issuance of passports have made corruption rather systemic. The passport seekers had to encounter lot of problems, particularly at the central passport office at Agargaon, until recently. Speed money, highhandedness of the middlemen, popularly known as dalals, and the on-duty police had been regular features there. The situation has improved a bit since the takeover by the present interim government. The irregularities that used to be indulged in openly are now being done surreptitiously.
The Bangladesh chapter of the Transparency International (TIB) in a report published few months back estimated that passport seekers spent about Tk 210 million annually as speed money on the officials concerned. The officials of the passport department take the lion's share and the rest is shared by the middlemen and the police. The report revealed that an individual taking the services of the middlemen for getting a passport had to pay an extra amount of Tk 930 on an average. But the sum mentioned by the TIB is smaller than what one has to pay for procuring a passport through middlemen. However, many people, particularly seekers of jobs abroad, do not mind paying the amount to avoid all the hassles. The recent crackdown on the middlemen by the law enforcers has helped curb their dominance within the premise of the central passport office. Yet they are maintaining their clandestine operations in league with the officials and employees of the passport department.
It is a matter of great satisfaction that the present administration has decided to take appropriate measures to reduce the hassle involved in the issuance and renewal of passports. The council of advisers in its latest meeting asked the ministry of home affairs to submit a set of comprehensive proposals on the simplification of the existing rules and formalities followed while issuing and renewing passports. The government is also considering the options for extending the validity of passports to 10 years from the existing five years and involving one of the banks or a private agency in the task of passport issuance and renewal. The government should do the much-needed follow-up to reduce the people's sufferings involved in procuring passports or their renewal. A passport is considered an important document worldwide. But the process involved in the issuance of passports here being imperfect remains open to abuse by the vested quarters. The caretaker administration has been talking about the issuance of national identity cards (NICs) for the citizens. If that goal is pursued in all seriousness, much of the hassle in getting passports would be automatically removed since on production of NICs every citizen would be entitled to receive his/her passport.
The Bangladesh chapter of the Transparency International (TIB) in a report published few months back estimated that passport seekers spent about Tk 210 million annually as speed money on the officials concerned. The officials of the passport department take the lion's share and the rest is shared by the middlemen and the police. The report revealed that an individual taking the services of the middlemen for getting a passport had to pay an extra amount of Tk 930 on an average. But the sum mentioned by the TIB is smaller than what one has to pay for procuring a passport through middlemen. However, many people, particularly seekers of jobs abroad, do not mind paying the amount to avoid all the hassles. The recent crackdown on the middlemen by the law enforcers has helped curb their dominance within the premise of the central passport office. Yet they are maintaining their clandestine operations in league with the officials and employees of the passport department.
It is a matter of great satisfaction that the present administration has decided to take appropriate measures to reduce the hassle involved in the issuance and renewal of passports. The council of advisers in its latest meeting asked the ministry of home affairs to submit a set of comprehensive proposals on the simplification of the existing rules and formalities followed while issuing and renewing passports. The government is also considering the options for extending the validity of passports to 10 years from the existing five years and involving one of the banks or a private agency in the task of passport issuance and renewal. The government should do the much-needed follow-up to reduce the people's sufferings involved in procuring passports or their renewal. A passport is considered an important document worldwide. But the process involved in the issuance of passports here being imperfect remains open to abuse by the vested quarters. The caretaker administration has been talking about the issuance of national identity cards (NICs) for the citizens. If that goal is pursued in all seriousness, much of the hassle in getting passports would be automatically removed since on production of NICs every citizen would be entitled to receive his/her passport.