Executive Director of the National Identification Registrt, J. Tiah Nagbe
Monrovia – The government of Liberia through the National Identification Registry (NIR) and the Ministry of Finance have vowed not to pay salary or allowance to any government employee who has not obtained National Identification number from the NIR.
Report by Edwin G. Genoway, Jr. (231886458910)[email protected]
The NIR is the number assigned to every citizen who has completed the enrollment process of the ongoing biometric registration of government employees.
Employees that have been given NIR number are those who already have the biometric national citizen ID card and have completed the registration process.
The NIR says it has reached an agreement with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to close the project for enrollment of government employees by December 31, 2018.
The Executive Director of the NIR, J. Tiah Nagbe said the NIR started the biometric enrollment of employees of the government of Liberia on March 13, 2018, beginning with the Ministry of Finance.
“We have reached an agreement with the ministry of finance to close this project for enrollment of government employees by December 31, 2018, this means that anyone who has not registered with the NIR and therefore does not have a national number will not receive salary or allowance payment from government beginning January 2019,” he said.
The project is also intended to clean up government’s payroll and was part of the government’s 150-day plan.
“Even though we made a lot of progress during the 150 day period, we could not complete the entire workforce of over 70, 000 (seventy-thousand) employees spread over the entire country due to financing challenges, in spite of these challenges, we have kept up with the work,” he explained.
The NIR has reported that fifty percent (50) of the estimated 75,000 people working for government which is 37, 752 government’s employees have enrolled in the process so far, Nagbe said.
“At this point we feel that we have provided sufficient opportunity for any legitimate employees of government to register and get a national identification number,” he added.
He disclosed that some employees of government have come forth but their names were not on the list provided by the Ministry of Finance. He noted that the NIR has updated the list and taken additional steps to capture all employees who can provide prove of employment.
“To serve the remaining legitimate employees who did not register, we have made special arrangements, for employees who work in Montserrado County, including the headquarters of various government institutions, we have a team at Monrovia City Hall that will serve you, that team has been there for several weeks now and we have extended their stay until November 3oth, after which that enrollment station will closed,” Nagbe said.
He said those that work in the remaining 14 counties, NIR teams are making their second and final visit to over 120 locations across the country until December 7th. After that date, government employees will only be able to register at their county capital cities for the rest of the month of December.
For his part, the Comptroller and Accountant General of Liberia, Janga Kowo said the process is intended to help clean up the payroll of Liberia from ghost names.
“If you cannot go to take your biometric ID to obtain identification number, it means you are either a ghost on the payroll or you don’t exist,” Kowo said.
He disclosed that the Ministry of Finance will do a communication to all of the banks responsible to pay government employees ordering them to only pay those who obtained national identification number.
“Without that number you will not be pay and the only way you can obtain that number is when you have taken you biometric ID card or completed your national biometric registration process,” he explained.
He described the project as critical national effort that demands the support of well-meaning Liberians.
He said payroll cleaning is part of the fight against waste and abuse of resources because it ensures that government is paying only those who work for the government, not ghost.
“We expect a lot of money-millions of dollars to be saved from this process, and that money can go towards other pro-poor projects to promote prosperity and development in our country, in line with president Weah’s agenda,” he said.