It’s disappointing to see trained NIA officials in corrupt conduct – Ken Attafuah

It was heartbreaking to see some National Identification Authority (NIA) staff who have been well trained and ‘bathed’ in patriotism wallowing in corruption during the registration exercise in the Ashanti Region, Executive Secretary of NIA, Professor Kenneth Attafuah has said.

According to him, the uncalled for behaviour exhibited by these corrupt officials have taken away public confidence entrusted in them.

In an interview on JoyFM's Super Morning Show monitored by GhanaWeb, Mr Attafuah emphasised that “it is disappointing because when you have technical excellence and you match it will operational excellence, then you can achieve your deliverables but when technical excellence exists and operational excellence is deficient, you have a problem”.

Though some staff, on the other hand, are delivering excellent services as well as trying their best to abstain from misconduct, Mr Attafuah confirmed that “there have been many instances across the region of some of our officers misconducting themselves. I’m talking about this injury to public confidence and its impact on queue management because of a false sense of protocol, because of corrupt conduct that some of them have engaged in”.

He bemoaned that the greatest pain he is enduring now is the mishappening in the Ashanti region because he was optimistic of having a successful registration exercise since the NIA staff conveyed to the place were experienced. He also noted that the equipment carried to the region had increased but it was unfortunate his vision was distorted by some corrupt officials.

Early this year, it was reported that four officials were arrested between January 3 and 6, 2019 for engaging in registration malpractices in the Ashanti Region.

The four, granted police enquiry bail will, however, assist the police in investigations and those found culpable will be death with by the law.

The mass registration exercise which is currently ongoing in the Ashanti Region has recorded a total of 1,015,259 Ghanaians enrolled onto the platform at the end of 2019.

Out of the aforementioned figure, 761,263 cards have been printed while 552,796 cards have been issued to registrants.

Meanwhile, the NIA has extended its exercise in the region from January 10 to 16 due to the two-day break during the yuletide.