Registration conditions imposed by NIDA irks public servants in Mwanza region

THE condition for the public servants to obtain primary school certificate is one of the issues raised and which created mixed feelings as the National Identification Agency (NIDA) launched registration for public servants for Mwanza region this week in Mwanza city. The exercise which was launched for Nyamagana Municipality and carried out throughout the region up to October 17 this year requires all the registered staff to submit among other things their Primary School Leaving Certificate which was highly disputed, as many staff claimed they could not obtain them given the short duration provided for registration. One of the staff members, Mr Francis Mutunda, a teacher, said it will be difficult to obtain the certificate since he and some of the staff originated and got their primary education from outside Mwanza region, and that the given time was not enough to trace them. Earlier while opening the exercise which was conducted at the Mwanza Secondary School, the Nyamagana District Commissioner (DC), Ms Mary Tesha, said it was important for all the public servants in the municipality to be identified, registered and ultimately be issued with the national identification certificates. “This is in accordance to the directives issued by the government for its workers records to be in safe custody as well as getting rid of ghost workers in the future. So it is crucial for every staff member to be registered and in facilitating this, I ask for maximum cooperation to NIDA officers and others undertaking this exercise,” she said. Apart from primary education certificates, the public servants are supposed to submit other credentials including secondary school certificates, current salary slips, academic certificates and identification letters from the local governments. An officer from NIDA, Mr Daudi Hashim, said soon after the registration of the public servants, the exercise will continue with the rest of the residents and was scheduled to be fully completed nationwide by June next year.