Lands Department staff first to receive NID cards

By LUKE KAMA
The Land and Physical Planning Department was the first State agency to liaise with the PNG Civil and Identity Registry Office to have its staff register and receive their NID cards on Friday, according to the Minister for National Planning and Monitoring Richard Maru.
Maru, accompanied acting Registrar-General Michael Kumung, presented birth certificates and NID cards to staff from the Department of Lands and Physical Planning through its Minister Justin Tkatchenko and staff of Bank South Pacific.
“On record, I can say that the Lands Minister Justin Tkatchenko was the first cabinet minister who wrote to me and requested for the NID Office to have all the staff of Lands Department registered and issued an NID card,” Maru said.
“With the change in management, we have just registered most of their staff already and have issued them their NID cards.”
Maru said for corporate bodies, BSP was the first.
“With all the staff from Lands Department registered and getting their NID cards, this eliminates doubts of government paying salaries to ghost names at the department,” Tkatchenko said.
“Whoever that is paid is really an employee of the Lands Department and that’s the first thing.
“The second thing is that it makes our staffs now become more accountable to themselves and the Lands Department and the public because their NID cards contain their names, their positions in the department and we can easily identity who is doing this and that.”
Tkatchenko said the next thing would be to have a clock-in and clock-out system for staff.