Minister of Homeland Security and Technology Ali Ihusan has said that although previously some ruling People's National Congress (PNC) membership forms were filled at the Department of National Registration offices, he has now instructed the ministry to not conduct any such political activities in the office here onwards.
Responding in parliament today to allegations raised against him in a no confidence motion submitted against him by MDP. Ihusan said that he had led efforts to fill PNC membership forms by only Homeland Ministry's political appointees.
He said that each minister had been tasked with submitting a determined number of forms. As such, he had delegated the filling of 500 forms he had been assigned to about 50 political appointees of the ministry. Some of the work for this was conducted in a meeting room at the Department of National Registration, he said. However, he added it was done after official working hours.
Ihusan said that the main work done there had been filling out the details of the witness, as well as printing and attaching photos which had been sent digitally.
Ihusan said that he had visited the DNR offices on two separate days while this work had been in progress. The first day, he had gone on invitation to eat pizza, and the second time had been when the forms had been completed.
While this work had been ongoing, all the photos taken had been shared in a messaging group with over 50 members, he said, adding the pictures would not have been shared if the work had been done in secret.
Ihusan said that although it is not against regulations, it is not right for political appointees to do political work in the office and doing so would affect public trust, and so he had ordered them to refrain from any such activity in future.
Despite this, Ihusan maintained that this is 'nothing new', saying similar activities had been conducted during the previous administration as well.
Ihusan then rejected claims that information from DNR's database had been used in the filling of forms, saying that if it were so, ministry political staff would have submitted more than just 1700 forms.
He said that over the past five years MDP had submitted 500 invalid membership forms, while PNC had submitted only 183 invalid forms to date.
He pointed out that while PNC has gained 40,000 members, MDP has lost about 9000, asking if he was responsible for this as well.
"I'm asking if that was also my doing. So, I don't think it is right to blame me every time something happens somewhere."