NIA sacks four officers for Ghana Card registration malpractice

Four staff of the National Identification Authority (NIA) found to have been engaged malpractices in ongoing mass registration exercise in the Ashanti Region have been dismissed.

The four, together with a fifth person, who is a resident of Nyinampong in the Asante Mampong Municipality and said to have aided in the malpractices have since been handed over the police and released on police enquiry bail.

They are Kenneth Sarfo Boateng, who was a Commissioner of Oaths at the Church of Christ registration centre at Nyinampong in Asante-Mampong; Ransford Omane Osei, a mobile registration workstation operator at the Ampabame registration centre, near Ejisu and Dan Kwabena, a resident of Nyinampong.

The others are De-graft Osei Mensah, who was a supervising registration officer at Kentikrono M/A Primary School registration Centre in the Oforikrom Municipality and Emmanuel Edusei Poku, who was a district registration supervisor at Kentikrono.

They were arrested between January 3rd and 6th, 2020.

Offences

According to the Head of Corporate Affairs of the NIA, Assistant Commissioner of Immigration (ACI) Mr Francis Palmdeti, the officers were involved in malpractices which included registering beyond the stipulated time without authorisation while the others were accused of taking money from applicants aside giving out registration forms to applicants to take home.

He said per the NIA code of conduct for its staff, those actions violated the applicable internal rules and regulations and hence the Executive Secretary directed their immediate dismissal.

He said the NIA was grateful to the members of the public who witnessed the incidents and reported it and two media houses, Abusua FM based in Kumasi and The Chronicle newspaper “whose vigilance, sacrifice and commitment to good citizenship enabled the NIA and the Ghana Police to collaboratively pursue the measures that resulted in the arrest of the suspects.”