THE government will miss its audacious target of clearing the passport backlog by year end after it emerged that a combination of delays in shipping material and foreign currency was standing in its way.

This comes as the registrar-general’s office is facing an unenviable task of clearing a backlog of 386 000 passports due to debilitating shortages of foreign currency and a hardening of stance towards the government by international suppliers.

Registrar-General Clemence Masango, however, was optimistic that his department would have cleared the backlog by the end of first quarter of 2020 — barring a degeneration of the current situation — which he said had improved from the August position where his office was only processing 60 passports a day against a target of 3 000 passports.

Normally, passport applications should be processed within three months, but since 2016 the registrar-general’s office had been struggling to import essential supplies such as paper due to lack of foreign currency.

Zimbabwe is currently in the grip of a huge economic crisis — the worst in more than a decade — which has triggered shortages of power, foreign currency, water and critical medicines at State hospitals.

Byo 24