Lands staff receive NID cards

The Lands Department is the first Government body to have all its staff issued National Identification cards.

Minister for National Planning and Monitoring, Richard Maru, today presented to his counterpart and Minister for Lands, Justin Tkatchenko, certificates and NID cards for his staff.

Maru said Tkatchenko was the first Minister on record to have all staff issued NID cards.

In a media conference today, Minister Maru commended Tkatchenko for taking the lead in ensuring the Lands Department staff all had NID cards.

He also called on other ministers and departments to follow this example.

Minister Tkatchenko said he immediately pushed for all staff to have NID cards as part of efforts to change the perception of the department as being corrupt.

He said the NID card allows staff to be formally recognised, be paid and to be accountable for their actions.

Also present was the Bank South Pacific IT team, who are the first corporate group to have their members registered and issued cards.

Over the last three months the PNG Civil & Identity Registry and National Identification Office has registered 111,459 people, with NID cards to be issued soon.

This is in comparison to 146,567 people registered in the last five years since the launching of the NID Project.

So far a total of 258,026 applications have been registered and approved.

The National Government has approved K23 million in the National Budget for the program and Minister Maru aims to have 1 million people in the country registered by 2018.

Author: 
Cedric Patjole