The government has commended Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) for being the first organisation in the country to support the Civil Identity Registry’s (PNGCIR) NID Project since 2018.
Minister for Internal Security Hon. Peter Tsiamalili Jnr thanked OTML for supporting the project when he officially opened the new PNGCIR Office in Kiunga on January 09.
The opening of the new office also saw OTML officially handing over the project to the North Fly District Development Authority after successfully implementing the project for nearly five years at a cost of more than K9 million.
“Thank you Ok Tedi for supporting this project as part of your corporate social responsibility to the mine impacted communities including others in Western Province,” Mr Tsiamalili Jnr said.
From 2018 to 2022, OTML commissioned the NID Project with two site registrars and a certificate printing machine in Tabubil to assist OTML employees, contractors, public servants and mine impacted villages register. Through that partnership with PNGCIR, 84,530 were registered and 75,739 birth certificates and NID Cards were issued.
PNGCIR Acting Registrar General Noel Mobiha also thanked OTML for setting the benchmark in assisting PNGCIR.
“The help from OTML is much greater because there is no other organisation like OTML who has assisted PNGCIR to register all the people from its community,” Mr Mobiha said.
OTML Representative Senior Socio Impact Assessment (SIA) Officer Daniel Tau, during the handover said:
“OTML is pleased and grateful to witness the transition and commissioning of the new NID Office for North Fly District. Let this positive legacy from OTML be nurtured and developed further in Western Province,” Mr Tau said.