M

ore than three weeks after officials started collecting data from residents for the electronic identity (e-ID) cards program, none of the eligible Jakartans have received their new e-ID cards.

The City Population and Civil Registration Agency, however, said that the Jakarta administration was not to blame for the glitch, as the authority charged with distributing the e-ID cards rests with the Home Ministry.

Sulistyo Prabowo, the agency’s head of its technology and information division, said that the agency had no information about when the distribution of the cards would begin.

“The ministry handles the printing of the cards. I guess we’ll just have to wait,” Sulistyo told reporters on Tuesday.

Around 7 million of Jakarta’s estimated 9.6 million population are expected to get the new identity cards by the end of this year, as part of a national program to establish a single identity number system.

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

The equipment includes desktop computers, fingerprint scanners, iris scanners, cameras and modems.

Sulistyo said that as of Monday, only 172 subdistrict offices out of the total 267 had received the equipment needed for the data collection and distribution of the cards.

“All subdistrict officers are supposed to receive two sets of equipment, but so far only three offices have received the complete package,” he said.

In the initial plan for the distribution process, residents needed to visit their local subdistrict office to provide basic information and have their biometric data taken.

The information would then be sent to the Home Ministry database to be validated.

One week after the data collection, residents are supposed to receive their new IDs.

Sulistyo said his agency has collected information from a total of 26,090 residents in the city since Aug. 12.

Separately on Tuesday, the Home Ministry said it has yet to complete the data verification process.

“We are now focusing on the collection and validation of data from residents,” Home Ministry spokesman, Reydonnyzar Moenek, told The Jakarta Post.

He said that the verification process is indispensable to prevent future fraud in the form of double registration.

Moenek, however, was non-commital as to when Jakartans will receive their brand new ID cards.

“Let’s just see how the process goes. We’ll keep an eye on the process,” he said.

Identification and data collection has yet to begin in other regions, with civil registration in local offices only beginning to receive and install the data collection equipment.

Data collection is expected to start on Sept. 19 for other regions in the country.

The Rp 6.3 trillion project was launched in February as part of a plan to issue e-ID cards to 105 million citizens by the end of 2012.

The e-ID card identity number will be a citizen’s only identification number, and will be valid for life. The card will contain information about the holder, including marital status, blood type, parents’ names, employment, physical or mental disabilities, birth certificate, divorce certificate, place and date of birth, biometric fingerprints of all fingers, iris patterns and a photo of the subject.

Critics have doubted the project’s feasibility, saying it will do more harm than good.

Last month, the Jakarta Police launched an investigation into alleged corruption in the procurement of e-ID program equipment, saying the suspected graft may have cost the state Rp 1 trillion (US$117 million).

The Attorney General’s Office had named four suspects in alleged graft cases related to the procurement of the e-ID program equipment.