#BTEditorial – The tale of digital ID card bungling by both Bees and Dees

The road to Barbadians obtaining digital ID cards has been filled with potholes, detours and numerous stumbling blocks. At each junction, when it appears as though the country is making great headway with the project, something else arises causing the Government to alter its course.

Sadly, the saga has been turned into yet another political football. Interestingly though, both Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administrations have made their share of missteps and mistakes in rolling out the project.

For those who love the furore that can be part of politics, it may be exciting to hear Attorney General Dale Marshall and DLP President Dr Ronnie Yearwood going at it over the extension to the deadline for registration and the fees associated with the new digital ID cards.

We now have the two main political parties screaming at each other over which one messed up more. On one hand, the DLP wasted over $4 million in taxpayer money; on the other, the BLP cannot seem to successfully roll out the project.

What a mess both administrations have made with this transition to digital ID cards for citizens.

It was on the floor of the Parliament on February 20, 2019, that then Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology Senator Kay McConney told the Upper House that the Government was forced to dump 500 000 chip-based ID cards.

She said that in 2012, the then DLP administration had invested close to half million dollars in multi-purpose cards that were to be used to “re-register the population”, for National Insurance purposes and even pay for bus rides on Transport Board buses. McConnney explained that the chip-based cards “sat in storage all of these years”, rendering them almost useless. She then promised that the new BLP administration would be pushing ahead with the implementation of new digital ID cards.

The process started in 2020. It was then that the Trident ID card project was hailed as a “major transformational initiative”. It was said that on completion, the Digital Identity System would provide user authentication in online transactions and facilitate the signing of documents electronically, and secure electronic transfer of information for a range of activities, such as e-commerce, Internet banking and e-communications.

Here we are four years later. The fiasco continues with the Mia Mottley administration. And, while the process has started, it has been fraught with mixed messages on delivery, questions of security, controversy over costs and even pushback.

For some reason, many seemed reluctant to get the cards.

In August last year, Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science & Technology, Davidson Ishmael came under fire when, as a guest on the popular radio programme Down To BrassTacks, he was asked how much Government was spending to implement the new ID cards and he was unable to say at the time. Months later in October, Ishmael finally revealed that the price tag was $10 million.

Then in February, a raging debate ensued, led by cybersecurity expert Niel Harper who claimed that personal and voter information could be leaked when using the card. His claims were swiftly refuted by Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science & Technology, Davidson Ishmael who said the purpose of the Trident ID card was to make the lives of citizens easier.

Again, at that time, it became a political football with DLP’s Yearwood using the case put forward by Harper to call out the Government on the project. There was even more reluctance on the part of some citizens to register for the card.

In April, while at the St Joseph Speaks town hall meeting, Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the Government had to give yet another extension for the registration since the supplier was not in a position to deliver any more cards.

Last week, Chief Electoral Officer Angela Taylor said while the Trident card is currently free, residents who have not registered for it by the June 30 extended deadline will have to fork out $60 to purchase it. Again, like clockwork, Yearwood pounced on the Government at a political meeting.

Days later, the Attorney General sought to clear the air by explaining that the $60 charge was for replacement Trident cards and not for the first issue of the ID.

The political shouting and grandstanding this week over the issue is uncalled for and neither party can score points since they both have fallen short in the project. The DLP has $4 million in taxpayers’ money to account for while the BLP has dragged out and bungled a $10 million project – based on the cost provided by Minister Ishmael – that is still not yet completed.

It is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. There are some issues that simply cannot be defined by the political lines of red and blue and this is one of them.