ID cards are the basis of any society. They are crucial in fighting crime and terrorism, as well as ensuring free and fair elections.
They are, therefore, long overdue. Merging the voter registration process with the ID cards project was equally a good idea as it is killing two birds with one stone.
But ID cards should not come at any price. And it would be a missed chance not to go for the newest technology and integrate the ID cards into the bigger e-Government project. It was, therefore, disappointing to see that the sample ID card presented to the press on Thursday had a barcode instead of a micro-chip.
Whereas the barcode can only contain basic information, a card with a micro-chip can contain a whole range of data useful to fight fraud and crime as well as ensure more efficient service delivery.
The ID card with a chip would show the blood group of an accident victim brought into a hospital unconscious, the medicines he is allergic to, and the treatment he is on. This type of ID card would also allow a university registrar to check the previous schools of new applicants as well as their O’level and A’level results.
And it would make it much easier for traffic Police or border authorities to catch fleeing suspects as it would show the offences they were charged with.
The German company should appreciate Uganda’s needs and make adjustments now before it is too late.
More fundamentally, contracts like these should be scrutinised by international experts and oversight bodies, such as Parliament and NITA, before they are signed.
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Quelle/Source: The New Vision, 09.04.2010
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