Guyana Introduces ID Card Bill

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Brigadier (retired) Mark Phillips presented the Digital Identity Card Bill to the Guyana National Assembly in an endeavour to consolidate the biometric data of each citizen into one card.

The Bill aims to provide for the establishment of a Digital Identity Card Registry for the collection of identity data for citizens 14 years and over; and non-citizens, including skilled nationals of a Caribbean Community State. Data will be collected to facilitate electronic governance and to enhance government and other service-related matters.

It will also allow for issuance of digital ID cards and a Non-Citizen Digital Identity Card.

The Registry will be administered by the Data Protection Commissioner, who may establish in every region of Guyana one or more regional or mobile centres as deemed necessary for data collection and card distribution.

According to the Bill, ‘a Digital Identity Card shall be an official document, sufficient and necessary to lawfully identify the person in doing business with a public body or private entity, whether in person or online.’

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police and Chief Medical Officer have been tasked with sending to the Data Protection Commissioner every four months a list of all persons whose deaths have been recorded. This will empower the Commissioner to cancel the data of any such person from the databases.

Data which will be entered into the new identification card includes a person’s name, date and place of birth, facial image satisfying the requirements for a photograph, unique identification number, sex, citizenship, fingerprints, and signature. In the case of a non-citizen, a number for the application of work permit and any other data that the Commissioner may prescribe will have to be provided.

‘The Citizen Digital Identity Card and Non-Citizen Digital Identity Card shall be made with high security materials and elements that offer durability, reliability, and exclude any possible alteration, so that they cannot be the object of any fraud and consequently guarantee the identity of the holders of the cards,’ the new framework outlines.

The design of the new cards will take into account relevant international standards, including those of the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

In March, the Guyana Government signed a $35.4 million contract with German-based Veridos Identity Solutions to implement the Single Electronic Identification System and issuance of new electronic ID cards.