Audit of NID project urged

I WRITE in support of a call by Transparency International for an independent audit into the NID project, in particular from 2018 to 2019, which appeared both in The National (Feb 12) and Post-Courier (Feb 13).
The project lapsed in 2017.
We are still waiting to be informed by the current Government, thus the audit is essential to weigh and measure the value of money spent.
On this note, I would suggest that the audit be conducted in three areas which include but are not limited to financial audit, system audit and administration audit.
Having said that, TIPNG is right in stating clearly that there are known inefficiencies and gross mismanagement.
This perception will remain as long as the audit is not conducted.
In my view, the three areas for audit mentioned above are crucial at this point in time due to a number of factors, which include the 2018 financial expenditure acquittal report is pending.
Mass recruitment and staffing at NID Haus requires investigation into the appointment processes and procedures.
System operation process, procedural management and handling of data quality, data management and the ongoing system failure hasn’t been resolved.
The nation needs to know because apart from the K230 million in 2018, K23 million was spend with less than 300,000 NID cards delivered out of the 1.5 million set by the Minister for National Planning.
This year K24 million has been allocated.
As I speak, with the current system instability and the NID card machine’s failure to print NID cards, how can PNG NID project convince us that they are able to achieve 2.5 million NID cards registration marked for this year?
In view of the above, I support TIPNG and invite people of this nation to unite and demand that the government establishes an independent audit team to audit the NID project.
The Government cannot be silent because this is a matter of national interest.

Still Waiting
Port Moresby