Corruption cancer persists at RG’s offices
SOME unscrupulous officials at the Registrar General’s offices in Manicaland are cashing in on the shortages of consumables used to produce national identity cards, birth and death certificates to solicit for bribes from desperate people seeking the documents.
President Mnangagwa has declared zero tolerance to corruption since assuming office in 2017 and has led an anti-graft crusade that has claimed the scalps of several Government officials.
However, despite the President’s firm stance, investigations carried out by The Manica Post over the past fortnight at some registry offices in the province revealed that some officials were working in cahoots with security guards and their runners at the offices’ entrances to solicit for bribes.
The runners collect bribes on behalf of the officials before facilitating quick service for those who would have paid.
Some of the observations were made at Chipinge, Makoni and Mutare registry offices.
Amounts ranging between US$5 and US$10 are exchanging hands for the various services offered at the offices.
The daring runners openly receive the bribes before leading those who would have paid to the respective offices where they are promptly served, leaving those in the long queues stranded.
For the Mutare office, unless one joins the queues before daybreak, those who want to obtain national identity cards are booked into the system and given a date to return for the ID processing.
For example, this publication’s reporter who showed up at the Mutare office on January 31st at 8.30am with the intention of replacing her lost ID was told to come back on March 9th for the process.
The next woman in line was told to come back on March 20th, which interestingly will be a Sunday.
However, a quick conversation with a runner at the offices’ gate revealed that the reporter could pay US$10 to oil the officials’ hands and still obtain her ID on the same day.
The script is not very different for those seeking birth certificates.
After enduring hours in the queue, those who would have managed to register their children’s births are required to come back after a week to collect the birth certificates.
In our investigations, our reporter seeking a birth certificate endured four hours in the queue as the officials dragged their feet. Just after noon it was announced that those who hadn’t been served would have to come back the next day.
Sensing desperation, a security guard at the births and deaths section then solicited a US$5 bribe for the reporter to be served.
When asked to comment over the alleged corruption at the RG’s offices, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister, Honourable Kazembe Kazembe referred this publication to a statement released by the acting Registrar General recently.
However, Mr Henry Machiri’s two phones were not reachable.
Home Affairs Deputy Minister, Honourable Ruth Mavhunga Maboyi referred all inquiries to the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr Aaron Nhepera.
Mr Nhepera was not picking up calls. He, however, was quoted in the Press last weekend confirming the shortages of consumables for national identification cards.
“After the successful roll-out of e-passports, Government’s focus has shifted to addressing challenges around the issuance of national identity cards. We are still having challenges with consumables for IDs.
“Government decided to start with the passport issue and we will soon be moving on to identity cards. We have engaged a Lithuanian company Garsu Pasaulis (GP) and they will also be working with us on the IDs consumables,” said Mr Nhepera.
Manicaland Provincial Registrar, Ms Joyce Munamati could neither confirm nor deny corruption allegations among her officers.
“The issue of shortages of consumables for IDs is a national issue, but we are doing everything possible to assist those who need them, especially those in areas where by-elections will be held.
“People should not rush to the media with unfounded allegations of corruption. There can be isolated cases, but you should not paint everyone with the same brush. If they are not happy with the services of our district officers, they should know that there is a provincial officer who is always ready to assist them,” she said.
Ms Munamati added: “Whenever people encounter any corrupt tendencies from our staff, they should approach my office with the necessary evidence and I will assist them.
We have noticed that some of the people who complain do not have all the documents required to get national IDs.”
In Chipinge, hundreds of people are thronging the Chipinge Registry office daily as they try to acquire the identification documents.
As a result of the ever increasing demand, the district registry office is serving only 50
IDs seekers daily.
This has resulted in some unscrupulous officials demanding bribes from some desperate people who would have travelled long distances to acquire IDs.
The pressure for IDs has also been exacerbated by learners who are registering for this year’s November examinations as it
is a requirement for them to produce proper identification particulars before sitting for their examinations.
Among some of the people who end up bribing the officers are returning residents from South Africa who are desperate to process their work permits in the neighbouring country.
At the Makoni District Registry Office, the few consumables available are failing to meet the demand.
This results in people being turned away without being served.
In some instances, people are also being given specific dates to return for the service.
To add insult to injury, there was no power supply at the offices for the past two weeks and people were being turned away without being served.
During the few hours where a generator was used to power the offices, officials were accused of failing to respect the queue as they could be seen handpicking a few individuals and serving them.
Mrs Maria Nyahondo of Chikunguru Village said the queue was no longer being adhered to as those offering bribes were being given first preference.
“By 5.30 am I was already here and I expected to be the first to be served when they opened.
We were told that there is no electricity here and the generator is being attended to and we will be served later. However, when the generator was switched on, officials emerged from their offices and collected particulars from people who were not in the queue. Some people were actually sitting in their cars,” said Mrs Nyahondo.
Power was only restored on Wednesday. To ease the pressure, the Registrar General’s office will next month launch a nationwide campaign to issue national documents.
Last year, Government and GP entered into a build, operate and transfer arrangement that will see the Lithuanian company producing e-passports for the country.
The partnership will also see the company refurbishing provincial and district registry offices across the country as well as providing consumables for the production of IDs.
Government is also decentralising electronic passport (e-passport) application centres to all the country’s provinces. The exercise is expected to be complete by June this year.
The Bulawayo Registrar-General’s office is already being equipped with systems capable of processing e-passport applications ahead of the roll-out over the next few weeks.
The Mutare Registrar-General’s office is expected to follow suit in the near future.