Interior Minister Aleu Ayeny Aleu says he has arranged for the production of ‘smart’ identification cards for all members of the organized forces under his ministry, which will help eliminate fake employees from the payroll.  

Aleu was speaking at Juba Airport today after returning from a trip to Europe, where he visited the company that the government intends to contract to carry out the production of the new cards.

He said that a government delegation spent about four days in Germany at the invitation of the company, adding that he expects the company to send representatives to Juba next week to sign an agreement.

“We had requested them to help us in production of ID cards for all members of Interior, so probably within two months they will be here and they will be producing smart cards for all the organized forces especially for the police, prisons, wildlife and fire brigade,” said Aleu.

According to the minister, the cards will include ‘biometric’ information, which most likely means they will show fingerprints in addition to a photograph.

“These smart cards will help us in curbing the problem of ghost names. Because they will contain biometrics and highly sophisticated kind of IDs because it will be issued to people who are physically existing, in which their biological data will be put into the database and into their cards,” added Aleu.

The Interior Minister had left the country on 29 September. During his trip he also attended a conference in Geneva hosted by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) together with the deputy commissioner for refugees, and Ambassador Abuk Manyok.

They participated as observers at the Executive Committee meeting of the UN agency and also met directly with its head António Guterres and his deputy for operations.

“We discussed the issues of refugees in South Sudan. Of course you know we are hosting almost one quarter of a million refugees from the Republic of Sudan and over 20,00 refugees from Congo and Central Africa.” 

Photos by Radio Tamazuj