There are no immediate plans to decentralize the issuance and collecting of passports at the local level as it could prove expensive and complex, Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee says.
Responding to a question in the National Assembly on Thursday, Rohee said that there were no immediate plans at the local level though the establishment of a location in North America because of the large numbers of Guyanese there is being examined.
He said considering that for people travelling out of town it is financially burdensome, the Passport Office has introduced some “innovative” methods to deal with such persons and to deal with them expeditiously. He said that at both the application and collection phase, they were trying to expedite the process.
The minister asserted that they had looked at some Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries and they had found it necessary to maintain the centralized system noting that this helps to deal with identification theft and the theft of passports. He acknowledged that at some point in time they will have to move to decentralization but there are no immediate plans except plans to establish an office in North America.
He added that ensuring the safety and security of the Machine Readable Passport is paramount.
Under further questioning, Rohee stated that the “innovative” method at the local office is a system of numbering and declined to give a timeframe for the decentralization of the passport system.
