Prof. Ken Attafuah, executive secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), has voiced concern over corrupt behavior by some Authority employees.
He claims that certain NIA employees have been detained and charged with extortion after allegedly demanding money from Ghanaians at various registration centers.
In a statement to the media on Friday, September 16, 2022, about the Ghana Card registration process, Prof. Ken Attafuah expressed his sadness over claims of corruption inside the NIA.
“It breaks my heart to hear of the corruption, the extortion of monies by NIA staff and there is credence to that. Some of them have been arrested and prosecuted, some people have been jailed and some have been interdicted and all kinds of processes are going on that I say I will share with you,” he stated.
He said that in other cases, "we [NIA] had to change the entire office, the entire staff, replace them, and interdict them."
Although there have been continuous instances of such corruption among employees, he acknowledged that they are few in number.
Four NIA employees were fired in 2020 for violating registration policies.
The Public Service Code of Conduct's pertinent sections were violated by the behaviour of the aforementioned registration officers, according to a statement made at the time by Francis Palmdeti, Head of Cooperate Affairs.
Additionally, the Authority fired 11 employees in 2019 for different registration-related transgressions and suspended five others for less serious offenses.