JEDDAH, 10 July 2006 — It is a common sight to see men loitering around passport offices across the Kingdom asking questions such as “Would you like me to make the passport-fee payment on your behalf through telephone banking?”
The passport department abandoned the old coupon system after many people complained that coupons were being sold on the black market for SR350 and were unavailable at banks. To counter this, the passport department developed a new telephone banking system. Nevertheless, it seems people are managing to find ways of exploiting the new system and profiting by offering to make telephone payments for people visiting the passport department. The middlemen make their money by charging customers an additional SR10 over the passport fee.
Arab News met a Saudi man, Waleed A., who stands outside the passport department along with other Saudis and non-Saudis offering their services to people visiting the passport office. Waleed stands with a piece of paper waiting for customers and says he can make a telephone payment to pay traffic fines as well as passport fees. Once a customer agrees to use his service, Waleed writes down relevant numbers and makes a telephone call to complete the payment.
Waleed said: “Our service is based on trust. I call this a service because we are offering to help people. We make a little profit by charging only SR10 per payment. I cannot give receipts to customers but I can offer my word. I have never encountered any problem but what I do encounter quite a lot of times is a suspicious look that perhaps I’m taking the money and running away.”
Arab News spoke to another man who was offering the same service. Reluctant to speak, the man did not give his name and said the men standing outside were trying to take advantage of all new systems developed by the passport department.
“There is always a loophole in everything. The biggest advantage we have is that the system allows payment only through the Al-Rajhi and Riyad banks. Not all people have accounts at these two banks and not all people are familiar with paying fees via the ATM machines. These are the people who we target,” he said. A Saudi man, called Abu Omar, had come to process a passport application and found it surprising that there are middlemen taking advantage of the situation.
He said: “I cannot understand that people can only make payments through two banks? I am left with no choice but to use these middlemen to pay my fees and leave. Most of the ATM machines next to the passport department aren’t working because they are full of money and need emptying.”
The people working in the department are too lazy to empty them, he added.
Abu Omar said that he found it ridiculous that he had been standing in a long queue for over 30 minutes and there was only one machine that was working.
Another Saudi was angry at the passport office and said the poor service it provided gave space to middlemen to abuse the system. “It is similar to the coupon system. How could the middlemen get hold of the coupons when they are only sold in the bank? There are people that allow this to happen because they benefit from it one way or another,” said the Saudi.
“At the end of the day, we are forced to use them. It’s a risky business because we have no proof that the fees are even paid. We can only assume that the passport department wants it this way,” he added.
