Report any act of criminality to the Police – NIA warns officials

The National Identification Authority (NIA) has warned its officials embarking on the mass registration exercise to report any act of criminality they come across in line of duty promptly to the police.

The authority in a statement clarifying two major incidents which occurred on Monday May 6, 2019 and Tuesday May 7, 2019, the NIA stated that a supervisor responsible for the Abossey Okai Central Mosque registration centre arrived for duty and met one Mr. Timothy Wuni filling out registration form which was not part of his assigned responsibilities at the centre.

According to the NIA, Mr Timothy Wuni's task was to operate a Mobile Registration Workstation (MRW) which is used in capturing an applicant’s personal data.

The supervisor after noticing what Mr Wuni is doing became very suspicious and decided to investigate the matter and promptly reported to the police who duly arrested Timothy Wuni.

However, the authority also confirmed in the statement that it found it MRW equipment used in capturing personal information of eligible applicants at a private residence but “the MRW on its own cannot be used to register and issue cards of an applicant”.

This, the authority explains that before the Ghana Card is issued, an applicant must assist a registration official to fill an application form with his/her personal details.

“An MRW operator then keys in personal details of the applicant from the completed application form and scans any other additional documents (other institutional ID’s – SSNIT, DVLA, Voters ID etc.) that the applicant may have. The MRW operator also captures the applicant’s biometric data (fingerprint, iris & photograph) as well as his/her signature. A printed slip specifying the information captured is given to the applicant to confirm that the information captured is accurate before the card can be printed. The card is printed, after which the applicant is required to authenticate his/her fingerprints with a verification officer to render the card activated,” the statement reads on.

In view of this, a full complement of equipment is needed to complete the process and not only the MRW.

The MRW equipment found in the private residence is in the police pending investigations.