As part of efforts to boost its human resource and financial management, the South Sudan National Police Service (SSNPS) recently launched Police Personnel Identity Cards in Juba.

The ceremony marked the peak of a phased process, which aimed to identify, quantify and verify the strength of personnel and generate accurate data.

The Police Personnel Registration Process was initiated by SSNPS in 2011, with technical support from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Police and funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Japanese government.

Different stages included designing and developing a registration system, establishing database units, capacity development of police, registering personnel, verification and finally, issuance of identity cards.

Presenting cards to 26 senior officers, Acting Minister of Interior and Wildlife Conservation Major General Augustino Jadalla Kamilo Wani described the project as the beginning of transformation of the SSNPS and emphasized the importance of proper identification.

“There are criminals in this country (who) are wearing police uniforms and pretending to be police,” he said. “This card is going to save your image.”

Maj. Gen. Wani stressed the significance of the project, noting that the police service is one of the instruments to implement the peace agreement.

“The agenda and the road map for nation building right now is peace,” UN Police Commissioner Fred Yiga reiterated. “How we fit into the on-going process of peace is going to be critical.”

Noting that police accountability was a top priority, Mr. Yiga encouraged the SSNPS officers to keep steady on the way forward.

“Police primacy and ownership must take off now,” he said. “You (SSNPS) hold all of us together on one single platform of law enforcement. We are here to support the beginning of police primacy in this country through this identification process.”

UNDP Country Director Balazs Horvath commended the SSNPS for its leadership in implementing the project and reiterated its importance in implementing the peace agreement.

“The personnel database will help senior police leadership to better manage the human resources and payroll,” he said. “With the peace agreement now signed, the database will provide reliable data for SSNPS personnel, which is a critical basis for creating Joint Integrated Police.”

Shigeru Hamano, a representative of the Japanese Embassy, expressed hope that strategic support from the international community for the police and prison services would help increase effectiveness as well as enhance professionalism of rule-of-law institutions in South Sudan.

“We all believe that peace and stability in South Sudan will require an effective and professional police service, which will deliver security and justice to the citizens in an accountable manner,” said DFID representative Fiona Ritchie. “We worked well together to come up with a set of actions that can improve the accountability of the police and help increase citizen’s trust and confidence.”

Currently, the project is being implemented as part of the SSNPS Confidence and Trust Building Policing Strategy, which is intended to win back the public’s trust support IDPs living in UNMISS protection sites to voluntarily return to their former areas of residence.

To date, 22,086 officers have been verified while 3,350 identity cards, including 579 for female police officers, have been printed with previous approval of Inspector General of Police Pieng Deng Kuol.

“This is perhaps the first time in the country to identify, verify and quantify the strength of the entire service,” said the Deputy Inspector-General of the SSNPS, Lieutenant General Andrew Kuol Nyuon Gew. “What made me feel especially happy and proud is seeing young men and women of the SSNPS closely involved in the entire process.”

He said he was looking forward to the day when the database would be run by the SSNPS personnel independently.