A founding Executive Director of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Ernest Dumor, says the Authority did not succeed in its work not only because of poor funding and lack of logistics, but mainly because there was a lack of concern for national interest.
Professor Dumor however believes there is hope for the Authority, and has asked the current management, to be more transparent in their dealings with Ghanaians.
Prof. Dumor was speaking at a round-table discussion organised by Citi FM and the World Bank on the theme, “National Identification: A Panacea for Ghana’s social, economic and political development.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”dFRQpwlpWyQ4Sah1YnXZhE89c6hNWH79″]Prof. Dumor, father to the late ace broadcaster Komla Dumor, revealed the frustration he suffered as the first head of the Authority and called on the current NIA leadership to be more forthright with Ghanaians.
“I urge all the players at NIA, all the associates to be as open to the Ghanaian public about what they are doing to satisfy the national goal that was set as far back as 2002.”
The National Identification Secretariat was set up by government to implement and manage the National Identification System (NIS).
The Act establishing the National Identification Authority was passed in 2006, with Prof Dumor appointed as the Executive Director.
Under his tenure, the NIA was able to acquire several logistics required for institutional building of the Authority but due to lack of funding among others, the work of the authority did not yield much results. Although several Ghanaians were registered, many were not given their cards.
Prof Dumor, who spoke passionately about the early years of the NIA while addressing the forum, indicated that he faced serious challenges.
“I will continue to reflect on that because I have serious questions about the turn of events at National Identification Authority as we conceived it,” he stated.
According to him, they were making progress with their goal in spite of difficulties, but stated that one of the main reasonS the NIA suffered, was because management did not adhere to some of the stipulations in the contract with Sagem.
For instance, Prof Dumor mentioned that the contract entered into with Sagem, required that a Ghanaian is involved during the operations acceptance test, but Ghana did not even insist on an operations acceptance test.
“We did not insist on an operational acceptance test. We did not insist on any technical report that will make us make a decision as to whether what was being supplied was okay.”
Prof Dumor recalled that some of the machines they were working with were faulty.
“Mobile work stations were breaking down. The laptops on those machines were faulty and we requested that they be returned.”
He revealed that their request to return the equipment was never processed.
“I can say for sure that the letter which was written was never sent so we were saddled with work stations that were breading down.”
Despite the technical difficulties, Prof Dumor remains adamant the failures of the NIA were not due to the technical faults, but lack of government concern.
According to him, “It is not because we did not have a good system. It is simply because we did not pay attention to national interests.”
Various speakers and other stakeholders at the forum agreed on the need for the country to minimize the number of ID cards by integrating all forms of national ID cards.
This according to them will not only make life comfortable, but will also help government’s data collection for national development.
–
By Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana