It is lunch time but many are hungry without any hope of a meal. They are forced to either walk or to borrow to get to work or back home. They accuse the National Identification and Registration Authority, NIRA the government body charged with creating the National Citizens’ Database of failing to pay their wages for two months now. Those who received allegedly got half pay. “They have even reached the second month, they are not even giving information about our payments and some of us have not got any single payment for two months now. Those who got for the first month, they got 350,000 the remaining 120,000 they are not giving the feedback, that is the problem.” Said, Aine Patrick – Registration Officer. “You find some people; let me say 6,000 to 7,000 in a day, so it means at the end of it all; you are working for nothing.” Said, Mary Anyingi – Supervisor. Some have vowed to cease working until their concerns are addressed.
They told the Mityana Woman Member of Parliament Judith Nabakooba told Defense and Internal Affairs Committee of Parliament that NIRA shouldrise up to the challenges facing the exercise. NIRA’s Spokesperson Gilbert Kadilo confirmed that indeed 600 of the 1200 contracted workers were yet to receive their payments. According to the contract, the agents were supposed to receive their pay for each day worked. “We are aware that 610 of the Enrollment Officers that are registering learners as of today or as of yesterday have not yet been paid. The reason for that is that; we agreed that they will be paid their dues on Mobile Money platform. The vast majority provided us the information that we required; correct information. Those who haven’t received their payments to date had challenges with the information they provided.” Said, NIRA’s Spokesperson.
Nabakooba tasked NIRA to rectify the challenges of equipment malfunctioning that had so far docked the exercise. “We want to put them to task to explain, we thought as a committee we had given them money even the Budget Committee endorsed money for this exercise but where’s the money? You will realize that they fail to transport the machines and the equipment from one school to another. They have again to tell the Head teachers to organize transport for the equipment to be delivered. What did they plan for, what was the money for?” Said the Woman MP, Mityana district. The Committee visited schools in Makindye, rubaga, Bugolobi, and Wakiso district. The 53 billion project intends to capture biometric records of over 10 million children. The exercise originally meant to be completed in three months was yet to cover the whole country.
