Mozambique: Interior Minister attacks poor work of identification office

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Mozambique: Interior Minister attacks poor work of identification office

6:54 CAT | 07 Jan 2022

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Photo in file CoM

Mozambican Interior Minister Arsenia Massingue on Thursday expressed anger at the poor quality of services provided to the public by the National Civil Identification Directorate (DNIC).

She visited the main DNIC offices in Maputo, and was infuriated by the slow way in which the staff attended the users, who were trying to obtain new identity cards, and by the build-up of large crowds, contradicting the general rules for preventing the spread of the Covid-19 respiratory disease.

At a press conference at the end of her visit, Massingue said “my impression is negative. We must accept criticism, because we are not providing a good service. We must improve the way in which we attend to the public”.

She said she made her visit in response to denunciations by members of the public who complained at the slow pace at which DNIC offices worked.

“The people have inspected our activities and they noted poor service”, said the Minister. “They blew the whistle, and we have the task to organize ourselves, taking the measures that will lead to the good service that our public deserves”.

The queues at the counters were badly managed, Massingue said, noting that some citizens arrived early in the morning, but still waited hours before DNIC officials attended to them.

On Thursday, there was a problem with power cuts, but Massingue declared that this did not justify huge crowds at the office entrance.

“So we are going to take urgent measures”, she promised, “since this is not the first time this sort of problem has occurred”.

People waiting in the queue agreed with the Minister, and told reporters that some DNIC staff demanded illicit payments before they would attend to citizens.

One of them, Almeida Mondlane, said that she had scheduled an appointment at DIC for 10.00 on Thursday morning, but no official was there to see her at that time. “Even with the system of making appointments in advance, the staff don’t know how many people they should see in a day”, she said.

“The staff serve the public very badly”, she said, “which damages the image of the institution. And they are charging money at the door to facilitate attendance”.

Source: AIM