The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has rejected allegations of financial mismanagement, staff mismanagement and mishandling of registration equipment during the ongoing national identity registration project.NIRA Registrar Claire Ollama addressed the concerns during a press conference at Police Headquarters in Naguru, Kampala, where she provided an update on staffing, payments, registration equipment and the issuance of national identity cards.One of the major issues raised was the reduction in the number of staff recruited for the registration exercise.Ollama said NIRA had initially planned to deploy 13,787 project staff, but only 9,131 remained after the exercise began.She explained that some workers left because of personal reasons, while others resigned after securing different employment opportunities.Some staff members also left because they found the work demanding, while others were dismissed for disciplinary reasons.Ollama said the recruitment process had been conducted fairly and that the remaining workforce was capable of handling the work assigned to them.She also explained concerns surrounding payments to project staff.According to NIRA, the workers were not salaried employees. Instead, they received a daily allowance of Shs40,000 to cater for transport and lunch.Ollama said monthly payment figures differed because staff did not work the same number of days.She cited illness, pregnancy and voluntary absence among the reasons for differences in attendance.In Wakiso alone, she said, 18 staff members had taken time off because of pregnancy, affecting the number of days they worked and consequently their allowances.The monthly wage bill for the project was reported to range between Shs6 billion and Shs8 billion, depending on attendance and the number of days worked.Ollama also addressed concerns about outstanding payments.She said approximately Shs1.5 billion was still owed to some project workers, with delays linked to issues such as changed bank accounts, deactivated accounts and automatic deductions by financial institutions.She added that some workers had reported missing payments even after NIRA had transferred the money to their accounts.According to Ollama, about 11 percent of project staff had raised payment-related queries.She said NIRA was working to resolve the outstanding issues and process the remaining payments.The Registrar also rejected claims that NIRA had failed to procure sufficient registration equipment.She said the authority had procured 5,665 registration kits and that all of them had been fully utilised during the registration exercise.Another major concern was the pace at which national identity cards were being issued.Ollama said NIRA currently has 418 permanent employees, of whom 297 are working in operations, the department responsible for card issuance.The authority is issuing an average of 70,000 cards every day across 146 offices, according to the Registrar.She acknowledged that the workload was significant and said the authority needed additional resources to improve service delivery.NIRA has consequently called for increased government funding, more staff and expansion of operations to the parish level.Ollama maintained that despite the challenges, the authority remains committed to completing the registration and card issuance programme and urged citizens to remain patient while the process continues.
