Minister: Sack staff charging fees

PNG Civil and Identification Registry employees who charge fees for National Identification cards need to be sacked on the spot.

Minister for National Planning and Monitoring, Richard Maru, says he has heard that citizens have been charged to be issued their NID cards; this practice has to stop.

Maru bluntly informed the acting registrar of the PNG Civil and Identity Registry, Tumbo Kumung, to weed out the practice of charging fees.

“At the moment I’m hearing that staff are charging people all kinds of fees. The ID cards are free.

“So Mr Kumung, one of the things you’ve got to make sure doesn’t happen anymore is people being charged for getting cards.

“Anybody charged should be charged and sacked on the spot. We don’t have time for people like that so we need to bring a new culture and get people to focus.”

He also called for more productivity in the registry by fast tracking the issuing of cards so that citizens do not waste their time in long queues every day.

“To people who’ve gone through the experience of waiting six months or twelve months for your cards, we are going to sort it out, I will make it my businesses even if I have to go down there every week myself and make sure we turn around the performance of this organisation.”

Maru added: “Our productivity in the organisation has been very low in that office.”