The Ministry of Internal Affairs has refuted rumours that they have run out of passport booklets, which has affected production.
Simon Peter Mundeyi the ministry Spokesperson says, however, that they scaled down the production of passports to enable them to upgrade their system.
While addressing journalists at the Internal Affairs Ministry offices in Kampala on Monday, Mundeyi noted that after lock-down, they had over one million applications that needed processing and printing.
Due to the mass production, the systems kept breaking down because they were overworked and hence the decision to upgrade their system to enable them to print more passports faster when the need arises.
He further explains that they are also integrating an automatic fingerprint system, which will help the ministry avoid instances where one person gets more than one passport.
Mundeyi says the upgrade process that started more than a week ago shall last more than three weeks until the end of May before the passport office resumes normal operations.
The passport office has three machines each with the capacity to produce 1000 passports daily. However, only two machines were active, while the other machine was undergoing an upgrade.
Mundeyi says that on a daily basis, they print over 3000 passports processed from the head office in Kampala, regional offices in Mbale, Mbarara and Gulu and mission offices in Washington USA and London in the United Kingdom. They are now producing about 1800 passports since they are operating at 60 percent capacity.
For one to get a passport, they have to apply online and get a code, which they use to pay for the passport before they are allowed to proceed to the next step on the passport application portal to get an appointment to go for interviews.
