The National Identification Program (NID) will be reviewed by the government in December this year to ensure the issues experienced in the processing and its’ requirement to access services faced by the public is resolved.
Prime Minister James Marape gave this undertaking on the issue in Parliament today after being asked by Nawae MP Kennedy Wenge on the government’s approach to the issue.
Mr Wenge said people in his electorate including students have had issues accessing banking, travel and other services because of the hiccups with the NID system.
“Some had to ask me to assist them with money to travel to Port Moresby so they can visit the main office to process their NID cards.”
“And when they come to Port Moresby, they are lined up again at the NID office and wait again for some time to have their NID processed,” Mr Wenge said.
In response, Mr Marape said so much money was put in for this project however because the funds were given on an ad hoc basis, it wasn’t successfully carried out.
“The then O’Neill government committed over K400 million for this project but it wasn’t rolled out to expectations and my government now had to inherit these issues.”
“The intention of the project was good, however the set up did not cover all parts of the country.”
The Prime Minister said after the review next month, the government will announce on how it will ensure the NID requirements are relaxed so it is accessible while at the same time work with provincial governments to establish NID offices throughout the entire country.