The Dysfunctional PNG National ID (PNG NID) Project

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In early January 2018 my mother needed a birth certificate and a Papua New Guinea National Identification (PNG NID) card as supporting documents for her PNG passport application. Little did she know that it would take three return trips from Buka, Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB) to Kokopo, East New Britain Province by air before she finally collected a birth certificate, but not a PNG NID card. Although the PNG NID website carries the message, "We do not accept any form of gift from clients. Thank us with a smile.", my mother was asked by a PNG NID employee for a "personal loan" in exchange for her PNG NID card, a request that she declined. 

The PNG NID Card Project, launched in November 2014 under a contract with the Chinese telecommunications company, Huawei Technologies, was promoted by the PNG Government as the vehicle to produce a universal ID card for all PNG citizens. At its inception it was a joint project between the PNG Electoral Commission, Civil Registry and National Statistical Office (NSO), designed to gather information on births, marriages and deaths. With PGK55 million allocated in the 2015 National Budget for the project's roll-out, it was projected that the PNG NID cards would enable holders to open bank accounts, and access small business loans, subsidised health care and school fees. The project's scope has since been extended so that a PNG NID card is now required when applying for a mobile phone SIM card, driver's licence or passport. 

Another optimistic aim was to register all eligible voters and provide them with PNG NID cards prior to the 2017 General Election.  It remains unclear how the allocated PGK55 million was expended in the 2015 Financial Year and why the project failed to register all eligible voters prior to the 2017 General Election, since the none of the project's partners have publicly released documents to clarify these important issues. 

Despite the continuation of the PNG NID Project from 2014 to 2018, a serious lack of funding and blatant mismanagement hindered its nation-wide progress. In 2018, the NSO's Chief Statistician, Roko Koloma, was suspended from his position in relation to the alleged misuse of PGK24 million provided to the NSO to fund the PNG NID Project. The results of a proposed government investigation into this alleged misuse of public funds, led by the then Chief Secretary, Isaac Lupari, haven't been publicly released. 

In January 2019, at the opening of the new PNG NID Office at Waigani, National Capital District, the then Minister for National Planning and Monitoring, Mr Richard Naru, announced that by the end of 2019, his department aimed to have two million PNG citizens registered, each with a PNG NID card.

However, this ambitious goal wasn't achieved and it is currently estimated that less than six per cent of PNG's 8.5 million citizens have been registered.

The reason my mother had to travel to Kokopo in 2018 to apply for a birth certificate and PNG NID card is that there was no PNG NID Office in the AROB, the nearest office being located at Kokopo. Despite the January, 2020 signing of an agreement between the AROB and the PNG Civil & Identity Registry to establish a PNG NID Office in Buka, with an initial funding commitment of PGK150,000, this office has not yet been established.  It seems that the only way my mother will be able to collect her PNG NID card is to make another trip to Kokopo.