Case of woman facing registration scam charges adjourned

By ZEDAIAH KANAU
A WOMAN from Central implicated in an alleged National Identity registration scam had a final adjournment of her case in the Waigani committal court last week.
Marama Kila, 32, from Irupara village in Rigo, is to reappear before Magistrate Cosmas Bidar on Nov 26 by when evidence is expected to be submitted.
She is charged with 10 counts of producing false documents.
On July 18, police received a report of a scam involving the production of unauthorised birth certificate entry documents that conflicted with the National Civil Registrar.
Six people were identified as victims of the alleged fraudulent National Identity (NID) birth registration scam operating within the Central Civil Registry Office and Office of Community Development and Religion (OCDR) in Port Moresby.
The scam was alleged to have been facilitated by former data entry and civil registry operations officer Sebastiane Beni Henry dating back to 2017.
Henry was alleged to have conspired with Sama Hesingut Arua, an officer from OCDR, to produce forged birth and marriage certificate entries using genuine government security papers.
The security papers were alleged to be stolen from the Central Civil Registry office at Konedobu and the Boroko.
Motukea ILG representative Ignaisus Maela inquired with the PNG NID Haus on the status of their (landowners) NID documents and was told that their information was not registered in the PNG Civil Registry database.
Police alleged Maela had paid K500 to Henry to produce six fraudulent birth certificate entries for the Motukea ILG landowners. Police confiscated the fraudulent documents, which contained a forged signature of Michael Kumung, the (former) PNG Registrar General.
Maela told police that Central Civil Registry mobile registration team leader Marama Kila was in liaison with Henry since June.
Police reported about 500 security papers missing and a recent batch (100) was allegedly stolen by Kila.
A Central Civil Registry officer later uncovered one of the fraudulent NID documents and reported it to police. On July 30, Kila was arrested and charged by police.