Ombudsman calls for audit of passports fee paid between 2021, 2023

Commission on Administrative of Justice Chairperson Florence Kajuju. [Samson Wire, Standard] The Commission on Administrative of Justice (Ombudsman) has asked the Principal Secretary State Department of Immigration and Citizen Services to order for audit of passports fee following complaints by the public that they were being overcharged when applying for the document. CAJ Chairperson Florence Kajuju who appeared before the Senate Defence and Foreign Relations Committee in Nairobi on Wednesday said that some Kenyans claimed that they were forced to pay Sh6,050 for a 'B' series passport (50 pages) while making their online applications only to be issued with 'A' series passports (34-pages) whose cost is Sh4550, thereby losing Sh1,500 to the government. The Ombudsman wants the audit conducted on the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) system for the period between 2021 and 2023 in order to find out all passport applicants whose extra payments have not been refunded. The Commission launched a probe into claims that the Department of Immigration was overcharging citizens for passports following concerns on social media platforms against the e-citizen platform that applicants were being issued passports with fewer pages than the ones paid for. "The Immigration department does not have an internal policy or a procedure guiding and regulating issues that may arise out of passport processing such as editing and cancellation of applications, thereby giving immigration officials the leeway to resolve such issues arbitrarily, the claims investigated amount to forms of maladministration, manifest injustice, ineffectiveness, and discourtesy by the department of Immigration," said Kajuju. She told the committee chaired by Baringo Senator William Cheptumo that their findings were that the Department of Immigration has no mechanism in place to automatically refund extra payment done following the issuance of passports with fewer pages than applied for since it relies on the National Treasury to vote processing refunds to be made to the affected individuals. The Ombudsman's report found out that delays in processing passports and the occasional unavailability of particular passport series on the e-citizen platform were due to delays in the approval of the procurement of blank passport booklets and the continuous breakdown of printing machines at the Department of Immigration. Kajuju said that they had established that the manual procedure for refund was bureaucratic and cumbersome since the platform is not able to merge into one invoice of different payments made at different times by an applicant especially when upgrading from the 'A' series to 'B' and 'C' or even from 'B' to 'C' Series. " The refund of the affected individuals was started when the Commission of Administrative of Justice started its investigations with the manual refund procedure neither documented in a policy nor followed by immigration officials, we are recommending that the Director General should come up with policy guidelines and procedures that will formalize and standardize the management of issues arising from the passport application processes," said Kajuju. CAJ Chairperson said that this will bring to an end corruption, unnecessary bureaucracies, and abuse of office by immigration department staff and that the Principal Secretary State Department of Immigration and Citizen Services should ensure the nine complainants in this case and all the other applicants whose extra payments have not been refunded identified from the system audit are promptly refunded their cash. The commission recommended that the Interior Cabinet Secretary should ensure an increase in the budgetary allocation to the Department of Immigration for the purchase of new high-capacity passport printing machines, service the old passport printing machines and provide the immigration officers with sufficient working tools. The commission further said that the Director General should proactively inform applicants about the unavailability of their applied series and seek their consent for a downgrade or an upgrade of their applications where necessary. This follows complaints by nine applicants that their applications for passports were allegedly edited to a lower series. "We have established that once an application has been made on the e-citizen platform it cannot be edited, the State Department of citizens services failed to show requests made by complainants and even from other applicants requesting the printing of fewer pages than that applied for to justify what was done against their consent," said Kajuju. Senators questioned why the commission only focused on passports yet the department had other issues like the work permit and application of citizenship and accused the Ombudsman of not being able to act expose the rot in the Immigration Department.

Ombudsman calls for audit of passports fee paid between 2021, 2023

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Ombudsman calls for audit of passports fee paid between 2021, 2023

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