Delay in printing NID cards a worry

National

THE ongoing delay in printing and processing national identification (NID) cards in Morobe has been attributed to staff shortage, temporary workers and only one processing machine.
Provincial registrar Keputong Geibob said on Friday that currently seven staff were working on a temporary basis and the office did not have enough machines to meet their target of registering 50 people per day.
“We normally go out with a mobile to do registrations on site but that has been discouraged by the headquarters, so we stopped,” Geibob said.
He said that the exercise was good as it sped up the process and saved time
It was understood that the staff are on temporary contracts and paid allowances and in many cases do not perform their duties as expected.
“They have their families and rents to pay but they are not getting their pay on time. They are on temporary assignments so it is something we had to look at seriously to make them fully concentrate,” Geibob said.
“This problem is not only faced here (Morobe) but throughout the country. The office of the Registrar and the Department of National Planning and Implementation should look into.”
However, he said complaints from the public were genuine and the NID office in the province was not doing enough to speed up the process.