T

he Jakarta Civil Registration Agency called on the central government to extend its deadline for the completion of the electronic identity (e-ID) data collection and card distribution in the city.

Agency head Purba Hutapea said on Monday that the city administration was not on track to meet the December deadline set by the central government.

Around 7.3 million of Jakarta’s population of 9.6 million are expected to get the new identity cards by the end of this year as part of a national program to establish a single identification numbering system.

“So far we have only been able to collect identification data from 743,713 residents, only around 10 percent,” Purba told reporters.

Purba added that at the current rate the e-ID distribution in Jakarta would likely be completed in April next year.

“We’re predicting to only be able to collect information from 40 percent of all eligible residents,” he said.

The e-ID distribution, which was scheduled to start simultaneously at all 267 subdistrict offices in the city on Aug. 1, was delayed after the Home Ministry failed to deliver the equipment needed to produce the cards.

The equipment, which includes desktop computers, fingerprint scanners, iris scanners, cameras and modems, is being loaned to the regional administration.

The Home Ministry, assuming that data collecting process would have been completed by late October, said it would take back the equipment in November.

“If they take the equipment back in November, our work will have been for nothing,” Purba added.

Sulistyo Prabowo, head of the agency’s technology and information division, said that as of Monday all subdistrict offices had received the equipment sets.

The agency recorded that there were 534 sets distributed in Jakarta.

“However, some of the equipment has already been broken including iris scanners, disrupting the data collection process there,” Sulistyo said.

In the initial plan, residents were to visit their local subdistrict office to provide basic information and have their biometric data recorded. The information would then be sent to the Home Ministry database to be validated and one week after the data collection, residents were supposed to receive their new IDs.

The Home Ministry originally pledged to begin distributing the cards this month.

Separately, the Corruption Eradication Commission has reported the Home Ministry to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for its poor budget management.

The e-ID program was projected to be completed by 2012 with a budget of more than Rp 6.3 trillion (US$705.6 million).

The antigraft body said there were indications of budget misuse during the trial run of the program in several regions in 2009, which cost the state budget Rp 800 billion.

The Jakarta Police and the Attorney General’s Office are investigating corruption allegations in the procurement of equipment for the e-ID project.