Gov’t registering workers for digital ID cards without activated laws

Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 November 2025, 23:12 by Writer

No commencement orders have been issued to activate the Digital Identity Card Act and the Data Protection Act but the Guyana government has begun instructing public servants at a number of ministries to register for the digital identification card.

Checks in the Official Gazette, the prime minister’s (PM) office and parliament office on Wednesday confirmed that the orders are yet to be issued by Prime Minister Mark Phillips who is the subject minister. He did not immediately respond to questions by text though they were read.

The Data Identity Card Act stipulates that the Digital Identity Card Registry “shall be administered by the Data Protection Commissioner who is exclusively authorised to issue the Digital Identity Cards.”

President Irfaan Ali has already been issued with his card, but the Data Protection Act has not been activated and so there is no office or commissioner that enforces that law related to confidentiality and secrecy of data.

Currently, the ministries of health and education are among several public service agencies that have instructed their staff to register when staff from the PM’s office visit them to do so.

However, a senior official of the PM’s office told Demerara Waves Online News that those two orders will be dealt with by Mr Phillips when he returns from overseas. The official said the Attorney General’s Chambers has already dispatched correspondence to the PM’s office concerning the need to issue the commencement orders.

Former House Speaker and Attorney-at-Law Raphael Trotman said if a commencement order for an Act has not been issued, it means that legislation could not be used. “If an Act explicitly states that a commencing order has to be issued, and it has not been, then it is inoperable,” he told Demerara Waves Online News.

At the same time, Mr Trotman said, “However, the commencement order could be subsequently issued to save and validate all previous actions.”

The Data Protection Act and the Digital Identity Card Act were passed by the National Assembly on August 9, 2023 and assented by President Irfaan Ali on August 16, 2025.

Home Affairs Minister Oneidge Walrond is on record as saying that the electronic identification card would, among other things, ensure compliance with tax and social security laws, as well as register foreigners living and working here. She had said that foreigners without that card would have to leave Guyana.