Audit Review Uncovers Crosscutting Inefficiencies in Ethiopia's Passport Services

Ethiopia’s Immigration and Citizenship Services (ICS), an institution subjected to significant public rebuke in recent years, was grilled by Parliament last Wednesday following a scathing audit report. Structural and financial inefficiencies were unearthed during the half-day-long session digging into the Service currently under reform.

Lack of clear standards for passport issuance, levying penalties outside of its legal mandate, failure to update information on the online portal and even exposing customers to unsanitary toilet facilities were among the findings.

The absence of comprehensive directives, standards, and policies to inform and guide the day-to-day operations of ICS appeared to lie at the heart of several inefficiencies exhibited by the Service.

Based on findings from two audit reports (performance and financial) by the Office of the Federal Auditor General over the last fiscal year the hearing opened on a cold note. Yeshimebet Demisse (PhD), Chairwoman of the Public Expenditure Administration & Control Affairs Standing Committee, expressed disappointment over the absence of Selamawit Dawit who heads ICS during the session. She recalled that a letter of invitation was sent 10 days before the hearing, rendering the Director General’s absence inexcusable.

“This only goes to show the level of attention given to the audit report,” the Chairwoman noted.

The rest of the hearing did not fare much better as nearly every response by ICS officials to the question of the Committee led to protracted back and forth over formality and details.

Opening with a defensive posture, Solomon Getachew, Director of Planning & Service at ICS, made sure to note that the institution was undergoing a major overhaul during the audit. He acknowledged that no progress had been made in providing a detailed task list for employees since the audit findings.

Solomon also confirmed that ICS had still not implemented a comprehensive immigration policy to guide its operations.

“Several of the shortcomings will be addressed by the issuance of E-passports,” he said.

Despite Solomon’s claims that E-passports would be ready by the third quarter of the fiscal year, the audit report revealed the absence of a framework to change passport booklets into their electronic counterpart.

It has become all too common to observe queues with hundreds of people lined up at ICS branch offices over the past few years. Allegations of corruption and bribery have also been reported leading to the arrest of 41 officials including the former deputy director general last October. While ICS senior officials have been replaced by a team of fresh recruits, reports of poor service provision have persisted. 

Last year, Auditor General Meseret Damte revealed that ICS outsourced services to unregistered company called Viditure which charged expatriates hefty fees. Offensive language and even physical assaults by ICS staff were reported during the report. However, things could be swinging on positive direction under the new management.

Gosa Demise, Deputy Director of ICS, assured parliamentarians that two proclamations and three regulations had been drafted to regulate the issuance of passports. He referred to the re-establishment of ICS from a civil service institution into one that reports directly to the Prime Minister’s Office as one of the key structural shifts implemented since the management reshuffle.

“A new listing of responsibilities has been included in a draft manual, and we are currently awaiting a nod from the PM office,” Gose noted.” We are working on a tentative organizational framework.”

He also revealed that the preliminary design for e-passports had received a nod from the Prime Minister with production facilitated through Toppan Gravity Ethiopia. Gose indicated plans to launch the e-passport service by January if all things go according to plan.

“All related documentation services are also transitioning in tandem,” the deputy noted.

Gose acknowledged delays in the timely submission of passports while attributing the inability to be on schedule to a mismatch between demand and supply. He recalled that 1.1 million passports were issued in the last financial year, a threefold increase from the prior period.

Still, the financial audit of ICS only proved to be just as daunting. The mismanagement of finances with even one case leading to court proceedings against three staff members coming to light during the hearing.