Public-sector workers selected for NIDS trial
PUBLIC-SECTOR WORKERS will become the guinea pigs of the National Identification System (NIDS) rollout as they have been selected for the pilot programme for the collection of biometric data to produce a unique identification number for all Jamaicans.
Jacqueline Lynch-Stewart, the woman who heads the NIDS secretariat in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), said that the programme will be rolled out in an organised way so as not to put the country in chaos.
Speaking at a press conference at Jamaica House yesterday, the morning after the Senate passed the bill with 168 amendments, she said that adoption of the law will not take place overnight.
“We deliberately considered using public sector employees for the pilot, and the reason is that public-sector employees are stationed islandwide. So it gives us a good feel of how to enrol people, islandwide. Public-sector employees are also a good reflection of our communities because we have different income groups within the public sector,” stated Lynch-Stewart.
Continuing, she said that with a good pilot, they would be able to tweak and to fix proceeding to a national rollout. “So that is also why that sector was considered and chosen for the pilot,” Lynch-Stewart said.
NIDS will start with a national identification number for all, and will evolve into a national identification card.
Both Lynch-Stewart and the rest of
the Government’s team at the press conference said that the single most important component of NIDS will be unique and accurate identity verification.
Robert Nesta Morgan, who heads the communication unit in the OPM, said NIDS will become the final tool that will identify an individual for all goods
and services from the Government. Until then, a number of current identification platforms will run concurrently with NIDS.