No plans are afoot in the near future for the decentralization of the passport issuance system even as hundreds throng the central passport office on a daily basis from early as 4 am.
The new system was launched on July 14 last year and the passport office on Camp Road started accepting applications for the new document mere days after. The modernized system produces machine readable passports which offer safeguards against alteration, forgery or counterfeiting. It should also help to reduce photo substitution, alien smuggling and facilitate hassle-free travel of Guyanese citizens.
However many persons have complained by way of letters to this newspaper that some system should be put in place so that persons from far-flung communities should not have to come to Georgetown just to apply for the document and then return to uplift it.
Some have contended that if applications and renewals are done at regional offices this would lessen the inconvenience and crowds at the central office.
The letter writers have also asked why the system could not be in place at least at main locations across the country.
These questions were posed to Deputy Chief Immigration officer George Vyphuis who told this newspaper that while at some stage the system may become decentralized this may not be any time soon. He said because of the nature of the new system its photographic and other features cannot be decentralized at this point. However he said all the persons visiting the office on a daily basis are looked after but noted that the previous system in which those persons from far-flung communities were given some amount of priority had to be discontinued and instead those persons are now dealt with like everyone else.
“It’s a new system and we have to allow it to work,” Vyphuis said. He added that efforts have already been made to reduce the issuance time to a two-week period and so far the system has been working well.
Meanwhile as it related to the long lines of persons who congregate outside the passport office waiting for it to open, Vyphuis said there was nothing he could do to prevent persons from standing outside the office from as early as they do. He said he also learnt that there was a feeling among some persons that the cost for the passports would increase following the presentation of the 2008 budget. He denied knowledge of any such move.
“We don’t know anything about a price increase
