AS skeletons continue to tumble at the Bulawayo passport office over serious allegations of corruption, fresh details have emerged.
An investigation carried out by this publication revealed that a close-knit web of corrupt officers including top bosses at the passport office were pulling strings milking desperate passport seekers.
As witnessed by our reporter, the security guard working in cahoots with touts are used as pivotal figures on the ground in facilitating the dirty process to disenfranchise genuine clients.
In an observation made by this publication, genuine clients’ que outside the office in the wee hours of the morning and are let in the office around 7am.
Their documents are checked by an officer who then directs them to the authorizing officer.
The authorizing officer then signs a form called a checklist in which the former writes the applicant’s details and puts the signature. After that one is issued with a client number.
After that, the client will then proceed to make a payment at the bank which is inside the offices.
The investigation however revealed how the passport officers beat the latest technology in their pursuit for bribes.
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There are two authorizing officers, with one operating outside where there are queues and the one in the office. For clients to make payments a signed checklist from the authorising officer is needed.
From the investigations, this is a major loophole that has been utilised by the officers for corruption.
This publication observed that in the morning before serving clients, the authorising officers sell blank checklist forms to the fellow officers.
These blank forms are illegally sold for US$10 each.
