National Identification Card
The PNG National Identification (NID) card project was launched in November 2014 and slated to become a universal ID card for all Papua New Guinean citizens.
The card would contain information on births, marriages, and deaths and become ID registers. It was a joint project with the Electoral Commission, Civil Registry and the National Statistical Office (NSO) (Yama, 2014).
Minister for National Planning and Monitoring, Charles Abel, said K55 million had been allocated in the 2015 National Budget to fund the project.
The new ID cards would enable its holders to open bank accounts and access small business loans, subsidized health care and school fees.
In February 2016 Mr Abel announced that over 150,000 people registered with the NID with the office rolling out offices in various provinces including Morobe, Eastern Highlands and East New Britain (Post-Courier, 2016).
However in January 2016 it became clear that it was not possible to get all the NID cards issued before the start of the 2017 General Election.
National Capital District governor Powes Parkop led the criticism, saying the project should have started immediately following the 2012 general election as this would have given it enough time to register all eligible voters (Yapumi, PNG Loop, 2016).
It is not clear how the K55 million in public funding was expanded in the 2015 financial year and if the failure of the project to register all eligible voters before the start of the 2017 General Election warrants further examination by oversight institutions.
To date the project partners Electoral Commission, Civil Registry and the NSO are yet to release public documents showing how the K55 million was expanded.
