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Fresh information available to The Finder indicates that it will be easy for terrorists to secure resident permits as Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) officers are engaged in widespread fraudulent issuance of permits to foreigners.

This is frightening because the attackers of the Westgate Mall in Kenya, who killed Professor Kofi Awoonor, used fake permits and IDs.

For this reason, instability in the West African sub-region, especially the activities of Boko Haram in nearby Nigeria, should be a source of concern.

GIS on Monday interdicted nine officers for their alleged involvement in falsification of stamps, permit racketeering, theft of residence permit stickers, underpayment and non-payment of approved fees and abysmal supervision of subordinates, among others, leading to the loss of hundreds of thousands of cedis.
According to the service, it also turned out that some of these officers turned themselves into a cabal within the service, defrauding unsuspecting clients and the state.

The widespread criminal activity is common knowledge in the service, but the perpetrators are said to be protected by some persons in management, making it difficult to bring the suspects to book, an internal memo has revealed.

The internal memo of GIS, written by the Intelligence Unit, which is in the possession of The Finder, said that a whopping 50% of requests from the Narcotics Control Board, Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), National Security, Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and banks, among others, to verify the genuineness of various permits issued by GIS turned out to be forged.

The memo, dated November 27, 2014 and titled ‘Threat of forged immigration permits: The case of Mendanha and Souza Construction Limited,’ said the practice of forging immigration permits is widespread in the service and is spearheaded by both junior and senior GIS officers.

GIS Intelligence Unit stated that the officers involved have found ways of covering their trail.
What is even worrying is that officers implicated deny knowledge in spite of overwhelming evidence, and their godfathers in the service intervene before any meaningful conclusion can be drawn.
“It is, therefore, not surprising that these practices continue as the suspects are considered as martyrs within the service.”

The memo warned that if urgent measures are not taken to curb the situation, it will bring the name of the service into disrepute.

Information gathered by The Finder indicates that nothing has been done about the situation and it is still going on.

The Intelligence Unit noted that if the residence/work permit stamps are under lock and key when not in use and are handled solely by the officer in charge, then it means there is a mole in the issue room, or perhaps there is a spare stamp in the hands of criminally minded officers who are using it to defraud foreigners and casting a bad image for the service.

According to the memo, the signature on the fake permits appear to resemble that of the head of the procession section, ADI Joyce Addo, but she denied knowledge and said her signature has been widely forged, raising questions about who actually signed the permits.

The memo raised questions about who is responsible for booking the cases in the various ledgers, especially that of the issue room, saying: “It is disheartening some of these permits went through the processing system unnoticed.”

The Intelligence Unit called for a general overhaul of the processing section to streamline the processes to make it water tight.

“It is time the service moves away from stamps for its permits to perhaps stickers with proper security features to reflect international best practices,” the memo said.

Some concerned officers
Some concerned officers of the service believe that these cases would suffer the same fate like others in the past.

According to them, officers indicted for their alleged involvement in corrupt practices are interdicted and later reinstated and transferred to cover up the corruption.

The concerned officers allege that the interdicted officers would not be prosecuted because they are related to top officials of the service.

Some of the concerned officers are of the view that management members and schedule officers who are to conduct proper supervision are not doing so for fear of being tagged wicked.
According to them, the officers, therefore, fail to discipline their subordinates who go wrong.

In this particular case, some of the officers interdicted are relatives of high-ranking officers within the service.
The concerned officers also mentioned nepotism, which they say is not helping matters as officers seem to have been handheld into the service.

They want the Director of Immigration to crack the whip and his lieutenants should also sit up and check the rot within the service if they are not complicit.

Some of the concerned officers think the Director is too soft, and the intransigent officers see that as his weakness.
Permits cancelled without explanation
In a related development, the following Resident Permit Stickers have been cancelled and declared invalid.

Stickers for Dependant Permit Holders with the inscription ‘Permitted to reside in GHANA under Regulation 9(8) of LI 1691 as spouse/dependant/student of’ with serial numbers ranging from:
•RP0000001 - RP0003000, and
Stickers for Principal Permit Holders with the inscription ‘Permitted to reside in GHANA under Sect. 13(1) of Act 573 whilst employed by’ with serial numbers ranging from:
•RP 0201052 – RP 0201100
•RP 0201101 – RP 0201127
•RP 0201228 – RP 0201300
•RP 0201301 – RP 0201398
•RP 0211101 – RP 0212000

Any foreigner with the said Residence Permit with similar serial numbers should report to the Public Affairs Unit at the Headquarters or the CID Headquarters to assist in investigations.

Following this development, the Enforcement Unit of the GIS would step up its enforcement activities to ensure that foreigners living within the country comply with the laws of Ghana.

The general public and the foreign community, as well as law-abiding expatriates residing in Ghana should be assured that the GIS would continue to work in the interest of the state.