NID reveals cards and personal info stolen

By JEFFREY ELAPA and HELEN TARAWA
THE issuing of National Identification (NID) cards has come under scrutiny because of the theft of the cards and personal details, according to registrar Noel Mobiha.
Mobiha presented his NID status report at the conclusion of the three-day Leaders’ Summit at Apec Haus in Port Moresby on Friday.
He said the issuance of the NID cards was done from his office to eliminate theft and fraud that had been taking place.
For a similar reason mobile registration was stopped but new ways were being considered to improve that.
Mobiha said another challenge facing the rollout programme was that all provinces except Hela, Western and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville were connected to the main control centre in Waigani.
He said Southern Highlands was the first province to trial out the NID system in the country but it was not working and they would go back and look at the issue.
In addition, the NID office in Northern was burnt down by arsonist and police investigations were still going on.
Mobiha said another challenge was that they needed more registration kits and with the allocation of K26.8 million, they should find a kit for each district.
He said the slow rate of telecommunication to transmit information from provinces to the headquarters to re-enrol and register details to issue cards was another problem that was making it difficult.
He said it was hard to rollout a project when the rates were so high like the current rate of the Kumul Telekom Holdings but he would be talking to new managing director and CEO Paul Hyde.
Mobiha said despite that about 738,000 people were registered through the NID system by December 31.
He said by the end of this year they planned to register 2.7 million people and by 2020 they hoped to enrol 3.7 million.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said to get the 2020 budget done accurately based on the total number of people, data collection and the NID registration process should be done quickly.
He said the duplication of task must also stop and allow government agencies to work together.
National Planning and Monitoring Minister Richard Maru wants provinces and districts to sign up for the project.
He said the project was for everyone.
“This is our project and districts and provinces that haven’t come to sign up need to take on the responsibility,” he said.
“We need to share costs in doing this because our budget is only K20 million for this year and I would appreciate if all the districts and provinces to sign up.
Maru said the government had invested more than K200m in the project.