Former staff in court for signing NID without authority

TWO former employees of the Civil Identification Registry (CIR) office in Goroka, Eastern Highlands, appeared before the Goroka committal court accused of signing national identification (NID) cards and birth registration documents without authority.
Seiyo Seken, 30, of Wande village in Goroka and Wawi Faina, 35, of Namalo village in Unggai-Bena, Eastern Highlands, appeared before Magistrate Frank Manue yesterday.
The magistrate mentioned the matter and adjourned the case to July 10 for mention and extended their K500 police bails.
It is alleged that Seken and Faina, while being employees of CIR, purported to be authorised signatories for NID cards and birth certificates.
They allegedly signed certificates and cards now, in many institutions both in PNG and abroad.
They were allegedly signing the cards and certificates from early 2017 to March 2019, without authority for both expatriates and PNG citizens.
The difference in signatures in NID cards and birth certificates coming from a single province (EHP) left citizens and expatriates confused, a number of them raised complaints against the CIR office.
CIR conducted an internal investigation to discover that Seken and Faina had allegedly been illegally signing NID cards and birth certificates for clients, charging money and had collected a substantial amount.
According to CIR, current acting provincial administrator Ipae Maniha was the only authorised officer to sign documents as the authorised provincial civil registrar.