THE crisis at the passport office has caused a major headache for government compelling the department of central registry to make a rushed and unbudgeted purchase of three new high speed printing machines to clear the passport backlog, Zim Morning Post has learnt.
Information and broadcasting services ministry permanent secretary Nick Mangwana confirmed on his official Twitter handle that the registrar general’s office has a massive backlog of passports. “Zimbabwe’s Central Registry is one of the most highly digitized and automated Govt Department with state of the art equipment. They are also in the process of buying 3 new high speed printing machines to help clear passport backlogs. Customer service training is on their agenda” read Mangwana’s tweet.
As earlier reported on this publication, the passport office crisis is owing to shortage of printing material including paper and ink and obsolete machines.
However registrar general Clemence Masango said the crisis was owing to a technical glitch and neglected mentioning the use of ‘old fashioned’ printing machines .
In February, Registrar General Clemence Masango hinted on the imminent shortage and the timelines of his prediction were spot on.
“For the urgent passports, the clients are able to pay, but the resources are very limited and if we continue to produce them at the rate at which we are doing, then within two months we will run out of paper and so we have to scale down,we only have two months left before we run out of material,” Masango told Parliament then.
He said cited that the Reserve Bank Of Zimbabwe’s foreign currency allocation to them was not sufficient to buy enough material. NO�>h