Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Minister of Foreign Affairs Declares War on Corrupt Officials at Passport Office.

Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has expressed her disgust with the unscrupulous practises taking place at passport offices across the country.

The Minister, who paid a surprise visit to the passport, told the reporters that the corruption-related acts of public officials are degrading her office’s image and prestige.

Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, speaking to the media following her visit, voiced her outrage at the repeated allegations of passport employees and “goro boys and girls” extorting money from applicants in order to expedite their services.

She claimed that, despite the online application method, certain passport office employees collaborated with a cartel of “goro boys and girls” to game the system.

To clean up the system, the minister relieved all personnel seconded to the office on August 21. She also demanded that all security officers stationed at the office be recalled, claiming that they had overstayed their welcome.

The minister stated that an inquiry is ongoing and that anybody found guilty will face punishment.

“I told my officers to put up an online system, and now the online system is being manipulated so that people can make money off of it,” she told journalists. There are ongoing investigations, and certain individuals have been mentioned. There is a cartel of people working with people from within. Anyone who has been here for more than a year, please do not return starting Monday Please do not return since you have been altered. We want to restore some sanity. Every time we declare that politicians are corrupt, certain public and civil workers do things that should not be done, and then they are blamed on politicians. We are attempting to restore sanity to the system, but to no avail.”