Nairobi — The Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) has ordered an audit of the National Database Registration Authority system for the period of 2021-2023 to identify all passport applicants whose excess payments had not been refunded.
This is part of recommendations the Florence Kajuju-led agency made after it investigated allegations that the Department of Immigration was overcharging citizens for passports.
The investigation was prompted by complaints made online on social media via a Facebook page "Wanderlust Diaries Ltd" against the Department of Immigration.
"The allegations investigated amount to forms of maladministration, manifest injustice, ineffectiveness, and discourtesy by the Department of Immigration," the report presented to the Senate National Security and Defence Committee reads in part.
According to the Commission, some citizens alleged that they were compelled to pay Sh6,050 for a ' Series B' 50-page passport while making their online applications only for them to be issued with 'A Series' 34-page passports whose cost is Sh4,550.
The Ombudsman noted that most of the complainants end up losing Sh1,500 to the government due to a lack of a clear channel of recourse.
"Investigations established that the Department of Immigration has no mechanism for automatically refunding excess payment occasioned by the issuance of passports with fewer pages than that applied for," Kajuju's report indicated.
"The refunds for the complainants are likely to delay since the Department of Immigration relies on funds released by the National Treasury to utilize the refund vote for processing such refunds," the Ombudsman's report added.
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Delayed passport processing
The Commission reported that the delays in the processing of passports and the unavailability of a particular passport series on the e-citizen platform were found to be occasioned majorly by two factors; delays in the approval of the procurement of blank passport booklets, and, the continuous breakdown of printing machines at the Department of Immigration.
The probe which was initiated on November 3, 2022, showed the e-citizen system was found to have eased and improved the efficiency of the passport application and payment processes but needs an upgrade to deal with emerging trends.
The Ombudsman investigations team conducted the probe by visiting the Immigration offices and the Government Digital Payment Unit under the National Treasury where it interviewed several officers as well as complainants and obtained several documents relevant to the matter under investigation.
Investigations revealed that the Department of Immigration lacks an internal policy or a procedure guiding and regulating issues that may arise out of passport processing such as editing and cancellation of applications and also lacks a mechanism to automatically refund excess payments.
"All nine complaints alleging overcharge of passport fees were found to be true while the allegation by the Department of Immigration that the complainants edited their application to a lower series was found to be false," the Kajuju team stated.
