<<Print>>

The Presidency has ordered investigations into the activities of the National Identification Authority (NIA). The Minister of State at the Presidency in charge of Development Authorities, Dr Mustapha Ahmed, who confirmed this to the Daily Graphic, said a four-member committee, including a commissioner of the Public Services Commission (PSC), had been tasked with the investigations. He said while investigations were ongoing, the NIA had been advised to suspend all major activities, including the mass registration exercise currently ongoing in the Northern Region. Dr Ahmed said issues to be investigated included the reasons for the tardy distribution of the Ghana Card and other challenges impeding the operations of the NIA. He said it was prudent that major activities were suspended while investigations were ongoing to ensure that the work of the investigative committee was not prejudiced. The directive by the Presidency has, however, resulted in some confusion among staff of the NIA overseeing the registration exercise in the Northern Region. The registration exercise in the region began on Tuesday, May 28, 2012 and ended in the first zone on June 6, 2013. The first zone includes the Central and Eastern Gonja, Nanumba South and North, Yendi and Sabzugu Tatale districts. Mass registration exercises of the NIA involve the massive deployment of personnel and logistics, as well as extensive public education programmes on local FM stations to sensitise residents to where to register and what to do. The directive to suspend the exercise, therefore, may confuse residents of the districts in Zone Two and Zone Three who are next to benefit from the registration. The directive will come with the additional cost of the demobilisation of equipment and staff, when the original plan was the seamless movement of the same from one zone to the next in the same region. Story: Caroline Boateng