Technology blamed as NID work ‘takes forever’

By LARRY ANDREW
THE NID registration work is “taking forever” because of poor technology, says the minister responsible for the programme, Richard Maru.
The Minister for National Planning and Monitoring said it had become obvious that people who had filled out their forms last year were getting their IDs this year.
Maru said it was not showing good signs with the turnaround times and the speed of registrations, and urged NID Registrar-General Noel Mobiha to look into the issue.
“I’m not happy with the turnaround and the speed of registration, which I must admit. We must make sure we turn around in weeks and not months and years,” the minister said.
“As minister responsible for this project, I’m not happy with the technology which I must disclose to Papua New Guineans and everyone must know.
“The current design of the system takes us forever to make registration which is too long.”
Maru said Mobiha, as new boss for NID, wanted to see him travel around to see new technologies that could be accommodated to print IDs and registrations at provincial level.
“We must empower provincial registrars and district registrars to issue ID cards in the districts and the provinces.
“We need delegation of authority from the registrar-general to be given to provincial and district registrars to sign the ID cards.
“The Government is looking at technology to enable us to move to that level of development so we can fast-track the NID project.”
Maru said between now and 2021 the PNG Civil Identity Registry would make sure every citizen over the age of 18 was registered.