Some influential members of society including chiefs and opinion leaders are arm twisting officials of the NIA to register them for the Ghana card outside approved hours and venues.

These individuals go to the registration centers and say “my family and I do not join queues so come and register us at home.”

Executive Director of the National Identification Authority, Ken Attafuah, who revealed this appealed to all members of the public to desist from this act.

Ken Attafuah wants the public to cease cajoling officials of the NIA

Speaking on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM Tuesday, Prof. Attafuah revealed that even some landlords are engaging in the cajoling of the registration officials.

He told host Daniel Dadzie that the landlords offer shelter to the officials and “when you think this is just patriotism, you find there are strings attached.”

Some officials sacked

Prof. Attafuah revealed that some 16 officials are already set for two degrees of punishment after being found liable to one infraction or the other.

Eleven of the 16 he said will receive their dismissal letters Tuesday while five will be suspended after investigations found them culpable.

Difficulties in registration process

Speaking on the difficulties in the registration process, Prof. Attafuah noted that the NIA is working to get machines to speed up the process.

He said some challenges where people do not get their cards are self-inflicted. He explained the system is programmed to detect multiple registration or other forms of infraction.

These, he said cause an automatic seize of the card pending investigations.

He disclosed these situations have created a backlog which will be cleared latest by the weekend. All those under investigation, including the backlog he said, are over 100,000.

He said over 539,000 cards have been issued.