Fake birth certificates probed

By LUKE KAMA
THE National Identity Office is being assisted by police in investigating the illegal production and issuing of birth certificates in Port Moresby.
Acting Registrar-General Michael Kumung told The National yesterday that they were alerted to what was happening from a Facebook account which was offering people for a fee the production and issuing of birth certificates.
With the help of police, NID officer confiscated a couple of birth certificates duly signed and ready to be issued to applicants at a home in Tokarara, Port Moresby.
Two suspects were arrested and detained at the Boroko Police Station.
Kumung said a senior female officer at the Boroko NID Office was expected to be questioned today.
National Capital District NID Office team leader Terence Bulingu said the certificates confiscated were “original certificates printed and sealed at the Boroko NID Office”.
“And the paper that we print the birth certificates on has special security features which cannot be printed anywhere else in the country,” he said.
“There is a company that supplies that to us. And the birth certificates we confiscated are definitely printed here. But how it’s printed and delivered to these agents with the signature and the stamp of the Deputy Registrar-General is a serious issue.
“That is something we and the police will be working together to find out.”