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Registration of Persons Department to meet tough
challenges:
Four-thousand NICs issued daily with a handful of resources
By Kurulu Kariyakarawana
A clerk writing the details on an insert card
A picture is pasted manually on the card
Cutting the edges of the laminated card
Placing the Endorsement Signature
A crowd waiting to collect their NICs
File room containing stacks of papers
An NIC with both languages |
“I don’t want to be a popular boss” - Commissioner General RPD R M S
Sarath Kumara
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Commissioner General RPD R.M.S. Sarath Kumara
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R.M.S. Sarath Kumara took over duties as the Commissioner General of
the Registration of Persons Department since January 8, 2013. Prior to
that he served as the Controller Visa of Department of Immigration and
Emigration. Sarath Kumara who is a former school principal claimed to be
a visionary who would gain the lost pride of the department which came
under heavy criticism.
According to Commissioner General Sarath Kumara the RPD is a state
department that is notorious for its incompetency and inefficiency. For
years the past heads of department had not taken correct decisions for
it to remain in a poor State like this. It has become a place where the
people were turned away for the slightest reason which could have been
sorted without much hesitation.
A person especially from an outstation like Anuradhapura comes to get
his NIC renewed. The person sometimes has to travel for many hours and
then to wait the entire day at the office and return with no result
because of the inefficiency. Many allegations were made against the
staff who had solicited bribes to issue a simple NIC. And many rackets
were reported where the identity card was being forged.
He said as the head of the department, three rules should be
practised. That is to be very familiar with the laws and regulations of
the department act, to have a good knowledge about the supporting
documents needed to obtain a NIC and most importantly, a good attitude
to serve the public without wasting their time.
“We should always think that a person comes to the RPD to get a
simple requirement done, that is to get his NIC which is an essential
factor for any other task in life. If a person wastes his time at my
office the entire day, it is not only his time but the precious time
that could be used towards the development of the country that is lost”.
There had been no good governance in this department for decades
ultimately making its staff to miss their duties and eventually not to
render a quality service. It is difficult to change the negative and
lethargic attitudes of the staff overnight, but I’m doing my best to
bring the department to a higher standard. I don’t want to be a popular
boss for my staff but an efficient government servant to the public,”
Sarath Kumara said.
He said that it is not an easy task to issue such a large number of
NICs per year with such little resources at hand. The necessity to have
a computerised system for the registration of persons is felt for a long
time. At a time when the technology is developed so much the department
still issue a hand written NIC which the records are confined only to
stacks of paper. Not only that, many mistakes happen in the absence of a
proper computerised database. Even the same registration number is sent
to two persons or there is no way to figure out the persons who die.
However, the department is planing to introduce a new Electronic NIC,
which preliminary action is already underway, he said. |
A person’s identity is most important for his materialistic value. A
proof of identity is essential to live in a changing world which is also
a person’s fundamental right in a way. The inability to prove one’s
identity could cause a great loss to that person in many ways. In Sri
Lanka the basic form of identity one could possess is his or her
National Identity Card.
The Registration of Persons Department is the sole body responsible
for issuing a government accredited proof of identity to a person and
also to maintain a record of that person along with all the other
citizens who live in this country.
Maintaining an up-to-date database of such personal records in a
country is not an easy task that requires a lot of resources and
technology. With state-of-the art technology like computers and servers
this could be achieved in no time. But the Registration of Persons
Department has been handling this task with none of this technology for
almost 40 years yet rendering possibly an unhindered service.
Amidst various allegations of incompetency, inefficiency and
malpractices levelled against the department for ages, it is remarkable
how it maintains a database of 20 million persons only in books for four
decades facing a demand of one million new applications each year.
Instead of a well maintained computerised record room with giant
servers the RPD has a large hall laid with several dozen tables holding
piles and piles of files dated back to nineteen seventies. These files
hold stacks of paper which some are badly damaged, contains the manually
entered data of over 20 million Sri Lankans who had been registered with
the department since its beginning.
The history
The Registration of Persons Department was established under the
Registration of Persons Act No.32 of 1968 with two amendments in 1971
and 1981. The issuance of the National Identity Card was started in 1972
with the first NIC being issued to then Prime Minister of the country
Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The chief motive of the act was to introduce a
method to register the people in the country and an identity card was
issued to identify them.
Issuing an identity number with the card was a challenge faced by the
department in the beginning as it has to be a unique number. Since the
department did not possess any computers by then it had to depend on the
Central Bank as it was the only government body that possessed a
state-of-the art computer facility. The Central Bank designed a computer
formula to create an unique number using a person’s birthday and other
details. This had been happening until early nineties where the
department was facilitated with computers to issue the unique identity
number.
Types of applicants
There are three types of applications which a person is issued for an
identity card. They are first time applicants from the age of 16,
applications for the lost NICs and applications for the amendments to
the personal details including name and address changes. The applicants
can direct their applications through three categories of persons
nominated by the department. That is through Principals, Grama Sewa
Officers and Estate Superintendents.
Most of the first time applicants are schoolchildren aged 16 who are
eligible to apply for the NIC and also require an identity card to sit
for the GCE Ordinary Level examination. Their applications are
channelled through the respective principals with the authorisation. The
RPD receives about 400,000 student applications every year whereas
100,000 more fresh applicants come from children who have attained the
age of 16 but never attended schools due to various reasons.
Electronic National Identity Card
 The RPD is already setting the background to introduce a new
Electronic NIC by near future. The decision was taken in few years ago
and the several steps had been taken in the preliminary stage.
One of the main problems was to issue the NIC with both main
languages Sinhala and Tamil, which currently being issued in the
Northern and Eastern provinces. As an initial step plans are underway to
set up RPD offices in all nine provinces. The Northern Province office
had been set up in Vavuniya and is already functioning. The Eastern
Province office will be opened in Manmunai in near future.
UNHCR and UNDP had funded for the setting up of these offices and
have agreed to fund more in the future. The chief motive behind setting
up offices in North and East is to facilitate the civilians who are
being resettled by the government and to help them to regain their
identification documents.
Meanwhile, 332 RPD Units are to be established in every Divisional
Secretariat countrywide. An additional staff of 800 graduates had been
absorbed to the department to man these units. This batch includes Tamil
clerks who would assist to issue the NICs in Tamil language.
Details of all the registered persons are being collected presently
to create a comprehensive database called National Persons Registry.
With a fully-fledged database the department can issue an ENIC with the
latest features like finger prints, personal photo taken according to
the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standard which is
used on visas and passports and the card be linked to important
databases like police and health services. |
Their applications come through the GS Officers along with the lost
and change of details applications authorised by the latter. Estate
Superintendents are also nominated to authorise the applications that
come from estate sector workers and their families. Another 500, 000
applications are of renewals and change of details which altogether the
department receives about one million applications an year.
Application Process
When an application is received the details are written on plain
sheets by hand which are later entered into books according to the
respective year. Likewise there are over 1,500 such books piled up on
the tables as past records. After verifying the personal details they
are entered in to index chits which will be preserved for future
reference. Then applications are sent to a section call the ‘Belt’ where
small units of three persons engage in producing insert cards or the
identity cards.
One person will write the applicant’s details including name, address
and the birth place on an insert card whereas another would paste the
photo on the other side of the card. Finally the third person will check
whether the details are correctly written on the card before sending it
to place the endorsement signature of the Commissioner General of RPD.
The insert cards will be then sent to laminating section which comes
out as the final product to be sent to the respective applicant’s
address by post.
It is shocking to see that all this process is carried out with only
four machines which had been using since 1972 with no modifications or
replacements. They are a typewriter to type the personal registration
number on the insert card, the endorsement signature which is made in
the form of a rubber stamp, the laminating machine and the cutter that
used to trim the edges of the plastic laminate cover. The department
currently possess three laminating machines, two cutters and only one
endorsement signature for the entire operation.
These machines were imported from England in 1970s to start the
operation and still remaining after 40 years with no modifications and
way after the manufacturing companies were shut down. From time to time
these machines break and has to be repaired by sending to the Government
Factory in Kolonnawa. It takes almost two months to change an
endorsement signature.
For an instance if a Commissioner General is transferred or passes
away the signature has to be replaced with the successor’s name. But
with a demand of one million cards a year the process has to produce
several thousand cards a day. Waiting for two months for this is
practically impossible and there is a risk of issuing cards bearing an
official’s signature who is not even at service anymore.
To meet a target of one million cards a year the department has to
issue approximately 4,000 cards a day which is a miracle to achieve with
the amount of resources and staff at hand. The department could produce
the mentioned amount if a full staff work on every working day of the
year with no hindrance from machine breakdowns. The benefits of the
advancements in technology was never granted to this vital state
department which runs in a pathetic condition for ages.
However this process had slightly developed since 2005 where two new
additions were made to the traditional set of machinery used in the
production. A scanner had been introduced to scan all the index chits as
an image file to be stored in a computer. So far 18.5 million index
chits containing personal records had been scanned and stored. Although
this does not support to create a proper computerised system it will at
least help to maintain the manual issuing process. |
