Governance expert lauds Minister over public outburst on corruption at passport office

Governance analyst, Dr. Fredrick Oduro has commended the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey for her unannounced visit to the passport office in Accra.

The Minister Foreign Affairs visited the premises of the passport office lamenting on the attitude of staff who connive with middlemen also known as “goro boys” in engaging in corruption related activities.

The Minister subsequently sacked five of the staff over their alleged involvement in activities that tarnished the image of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Commenting on the development on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey Wednesday, the governance analyst stated that the Minister moved out of the ordinary which deserves some commendation.

“For me what I’m happy about and what surprises me is that having known the problem she confronted it publicly. Which we don’t often do, our leaders don’t often bring out the issues publicly for general discussion or for themselves to confront the challenges. So I am seeing this as a plus and it is out of the ordinary for me.

“You remember when Professor Mills went to the port and spoke passionately about the challenges over there then. We were all happy because we don’t see this often. So for me it comes as a pleasant surprise to me and I am happy she has done what she did. If we don’t talk about it publicly we will never resolve some of these challenges,” Dr. Oduro stated.

He continued: “The government has spent a lot of money to put in place a digitalized system. We have an IT based system which is supposed to remove the human interface to a large extent. But then it’s still not working why? People want the state quo to remain, systems where you can manipulate.”