The Ministry of Internal Affairs has restarted production of passports at all centres across in the country after undergoing a system upgrade while the diaspora centres will remain closed for the next two days.
This was revealed by Simon Mundeyi, the ministry spokesperson while addressing journalists on Monday at Naguru based Police headquarters. He said that the two day shutdown of the passport offices in the country and in the diaspora help to has ensured upgrade the system in an effort to ensure efficient service delivery.
“The speed at which we are handling applicants at these offices has now improved and the number of customers we handle a day has more than doubled which is an achievement“. Mundeyi said.
He adds: ““Previously, we had estimated to receive between 1000 and 1200 passport applications but the number is over whelming , it has gone up to as many as 3000 applications per day. The system upgrade was therefore very necessary“. The Ministry of Internal Affairs prints at least 2000 passports every day.
Mudenyi also explained that the ministry had last upgraded the system in 2018 when the country started issuing e-passports and after five years, they needed to do an upgrade because even the number of customers they have had tremendously increased due to the influx of people especially the youth who are leaving the country for jobs abroad.
The ministry charges only UGX 250,000 for an ordinary passport and this takes only fourteen working days to be ready and UGX 400,000 for the express passport that takes only 48 hours to be ready. The ministry’s spokesperson said that the extra UGX 150,000 is for first tracking of the information on the applicant and money can be paid via mobile phone, through bank, online using visa and master cards respectively.
He asked those who had been scheduled to appear for interviews or picking passports last week to do it starting today to be handled
Mundeyi warned applicants to always avoid using blockers who saying that the ministry does has never contracted any blockage company or individuals who after being chased away from the ministry’s premises they are now scattered within the different areas in Kampala such as Nasser and Nkuruma roads, Dewinton and Jinja road and they have hired offices which are fully fledged.
In a related event he also revealed to the reporters that the immigration office has put stringent measures to its staffs in a bid to curb down the rampant corruption tendencies at the Airport. Mudenyi said that its now mandatory for all immigration staffs to put on full uniform all times at work which is white shirt and forestry green trousers or skirt, the officers will all have tags of their names on the uniforms.
In addition to wearing of uniforms at all times , the staffs are also not allowed to have mobile phones while at office and office premises, access cards which have got person details will be issued to the immigration staffs at the Airport by the Civil Aviation Authority.
By George Bukenya