By Isaac Salima:
Homeland Security Minister Ken Zikhale Ng’oma has disclosed that new passport printing machines, which have been acquired from new supplier E-Tech Systems, are slowing the process of passport issuance.
Recently, government engaged a new local supplier as one way of addressing problems associated with passport issuance following the halting of issuance of passports some months ago.
Ng’oma said the four machines print a maximum of 500 passports a day but has assured people that things would soon return to normal.
The minister said this Thursday when he visited the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services headquarters in Blantyre to learn about how it is doing in the resumption of the printing of passports.
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“We have challenges with printers that we have temporarily acquired. Since we are already sourcing the main supplier, it is already in the process and, immediately that is done, our services will return to normal,” Zikhale Ng’oma said.
He further said they brought in a new local supplier after parting ways with Techno Brain Limited.
“What we need now is a temporary solution. The permanent solution is what we are doing, where we are advertising the tender in order to get a permanent supplier,” he said.
Ng’oma said, currently, they have a backlog of 35,000 passports to be printed but was hopeful that they would clear it.
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“What we need is to ask for the possibility that others can be working at night in order to clear that list but we have over 250,000 passport [booklets] that are available, booklets which Techno Brain left, and those can take us a year. That will be achieved and I would like to assure people in Blantyre and other areas that the issuance will return,” the minister said.
The minister made a surprise visit where he found some officers chatting outside the office and confronted them on why they were not inside offices.
He went on to hold a closed door meeting with some senior officials.
Last month, the Immigration Department announced the resumption of the printing of passports after its system was hacked.
The department told Malawians that the printing of passports would resume in Lilongwe before extending the services to other regions later.
But Malawians have been struggling to have their passports issued as the services are yet to resume.
In Blantyre, the department is only printing travel documents to countries such as Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
