92 000 passport booklets in stock: Gvt

By Nyashadzashe Ndoro

Government has said the national passport production centre has over 92 000 booklets in store waiting for personalization when the necessary consumables are imported.

The Ministry of Information and Publicity said the national production centre has over 92 000 booklets in store awaiting personalization upon acquisition of necessary consumables such as gold foil and security thread.

“Passport production is done locally, however, consumables such as gold foil and security thread are imported and these require foreign currency. At present, the national production centre has over 92 000 booklets in store awaiting personalization upon acquisition of necessary consumables,” reads the statement from the ministry.

Home Affairs Minister, Ambassador Cain Mathema, on Friday toured the national passport production centre at Magamba Barracks (KGVI) to get an appreciation of the production process and recent developments designed to improve same.

Mathema informed journalists that passport production is set to improve given that consumables have been brought in by suppliers.

“The permanent secretary for the Ministry and officials from the registrar general including the Registrar General himself have just returned from a meeting with one of the key suppliers of passports consumables so that the department can buy direct from suppliers.”

“This development will see the department increase its daily production capacity. The current order of consumables for 50 000 passports was squeezed in by suppliers on their production lines.”

This follows the release of funds by Treasury, which was used to reduce the debt owed to suppliers.

This publication understands that Fidelity Printers had resumed the printing of passports in a bid to clear a 350 000 backlog while contract negotiations with Nikuv are still underway. Zimmorningpost