Why is NID correction so painfully slow?

Hasna Banu, a 70-year-old in Chattogram's Patiya upazila, has been making the rounds at the Chattogram Regional Election Office for more than two years to get her father's name corrected on the national identity card.      

Her father's name is Shah Alam, but it was mistakenly mentioned as Shamshul Alam on the card. The mistake now prevents Hasna Banu from receiving her father's property and subsequently making a will for her children.   

"I want to distribute the assets among my children as soon as possible," the 70-year-old, suffering from various ailments, told The Business Standard on 6 December at the election office.   

"But I could not correct the NID in the past two years. I don't know if this problem will be solved before I die," Hasna Banu said.   

Like her, retired government official Sanjay Mallick was another victim of the staggeringly slow NID correction process at the office. Mallick wanted to correct the spelling of his name on the national ID. He was told to submit his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam certificate as proof to back the correction request.   

Also read- NID corrections made more complex for 'transparency'

But he said he appeared at the SSC exam in 1970 and somehow lost the certificate later. Besides, the education board does not have any certificate records prior to 1990.   

"The regional election officer is adamant that the name will not be corrected unless I submit the certificate. What should I do now," Sanjay Mallick told The Business Standard.       

According to the regional election office, nearly 50,000 people apply every month to correct various discrepancies in the NIDs – which were introduced around 12 years ago and are now the key to accessing nearly two dozen services. The regional office settles 25,000 applications per month, while the remaining are left in the dust, forcing applicants to make the rounds. 

According to the service seekers, election officials turn them down and attach new conditions every time they approach them on correcting the mistakes. The long and frustrating process has led to immense harassment at the regional election office. 

Bribery not so secret 

Even though Hasna Banu or Sanjay Mallick cannot find an easy solution despite making the rounds for years, some people were found getting their work done quite quickly through coughing up bribes. And the transactions in the name of the officials were an open secret.    

On 6 December, hundreds of people queued up for NID corrections. Some of them were loitering around as there was no help desk. Middlemen and some low-level election office employees were found openly offering "deals" and taking bribes from such people.

"Whatever problem you have can be solved, you just need to grease palms," said a middleman at the office who identified himself as Mohammad Didar. 

To the query of where bribes ended up eventually, he said the officials "get" the major share of the pie. "How do you expect your problem to be solved without any cost? If you pay, everything is possible here."

Noor Mia, a rickshaw puller of Chattogram's Khulshi area who had lost his NID card recently, came to the election office holding the hand of a middleman to collect a new card.

"It was a Tk3,000 deal. I have already paid Tk2,000 and the remaining amount will have to be paid once the office takes my fingerprints," he told The Business Standard. 

Though the middlemen and low-level employees were busy in the transactions and "new deals", The Business Standard during a three-week investigation found that the officials refused service seekers' requests to talk or meet them. They did not pick up phone calls either.  

'Money will reach them right away'

People who came for NID services to the Chattogram Regional Election Office suffered the most in basic information corrections, such as any changes in name or date of birth. 

Regional Election Officer Muhammad Hasanuzzaman said his office has more than 10,000 such applications, while many of them are more than two years old.

People were found crowding outside the office room of the regional election officer. They got into arguments with the staff as they failed to meet the official even after waiting for the whole day. 

One of the service seekers, Mohammad Arif, told The Business Standard that he has been coming to the office for two and a half years for name correction. But every time he failed to meet the election officer, Muhammad Hasanuzzaman. 

"He [Muhammad Hasanuzzaman] does not come to the office regularly. He does not even pick up the phone," said Arif.

However, the staff of the officer were found taking money for "smooth NID services". On 15 December, Hasanuzzaman's peon Rupak Barua was seen taking money from an individual, promising him the corrections will be done "smoothly".  

After a while, two persons – who identified themselves as Solaiman and Shahidul – were found downstairs. They introduced themselves as "Hasanuzzaman's men".   

"It is not possible to get the work done directly here. Instead, you can accomplish it smoothly with our help," Solaiman said.

Referring to the top officials, Shahidul then said, "They will not take it [bribe] directly, but the money will reach them right away." 

However, Muhammad Hasanuzzaman rejected all the bribery allegations and said they are providing services completely free. 

"I don't use an official phone. So, I do not receive any unknown call on my personal one," he told The Business Standard.

Hasanuzzaman said that the backlog of files for NID correction was not due to his faults. "Rather it is their mistakes as they gave wrong information. Still, they keep coming and embarrassing me." 

"My job is not to meet people, rather I am here to work," he said.