THE backlog in the issuing of passports in the country has ballooned to 370 000 from around 340 000 last month as the Registrar-General’s Office is only able to process just 750 per day, an official has revealed.

Registrar-General Mr Clemence Masango told Sunday News on the sidelines of Civil Registration and Vital Statistic (CRVS) Day held in Bulawayo yesterday that lack of foreign currency remained the major challenge.

“The Department is currently hamstrung by the shortage of essential passport production materials which is imported and requires foreign currency and it is also public knowledge that foreign currency is scarce in the country and is affecting not only the department but many other sectors in the country. At the moment we are doing 750 passports a day and these are mainly on urgent basis and also on first come first serve and we have a backlog of over 370 000 passport applications,” he said.

Mr Masango acknowledged that the department needed to clear the backlog as soon as funding is availed.

“We are also aware that there is a backlog that we have to attend to and arrangements are underway that we get funds to get the materials to work on clearing the backlog so that we return our services back to normal.

We need to go back to what our charter says of providing urgent passports, 24 hour passports as the fastest, three days and one for four weeks.

We have not been able to do this because of unavailability of resources,” he said.State media