Registry puts NID cards on hold

THE PNG Civil and Identity Registry Office is printing only birth certificates at present, acting Registrar-General Michael Kumung says.
Kumung said the production of
NID cards was on hold due to technical problems with the printing machines.
“The NID card printing machine is down and I am waiting for the technical people to come and fix it,” he said.
“We are only printing certificates.”
Apart from problems with printing machines, the National Identity Office at Boroko in the National Capital District was locked up by the landlord over the non-payment of outstanding rentals by the Government since last month.
National Planning Minister Richard Maru, who is the minister responsible for the NID Office, confirmed last week that the office was locked up over rental arrears.
Kumung said because of the issues, they were being delayed by almost two months in terms of conducting registrations and issuing NID cards to citizens and it was seriously affecting their progress.
“We can only print birth certificates but we cannot print NID cards for new applications,” he said.
“We have requested for engineers from the manufacturer of these machines in China since last week so they should be here in the country by next week to look into the technical problems.”
Since the introduction of the NID project under the leadership of former National Planning Minister and the current Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel and former Registrar-General Dickson Kiragi, the Government had spent well over K230 million on the project.
Kumung said in terms of the Boroko NID Office, the landlord had locked up the office due to rental arrears and they were now operating at the NID House. In terms of rental payments, Finance Secretary Dr Ken Ngangan had said that the Government had centralised the payment of rentals and utility bills and it was being dealt with by the Finance Department, unlike the past when funds were given to the agencies to manage their own rental and utility costs.
State agencies were being continuously locked out of their rented offices over outstanding rentals since last year.