In an exclusive interview with News Update, Register General of the General Register Office Raymon Cummings said that backlog is a contributing factor for the delay in issuing birth certificates.
Mr Cummings explained “when covid broke this office, the General Register Office literally like many other places and it remained like that for some four months before people started coming back and working in shift. I came here in October 2020 and literally, nothing was done for that period of time.”
He further noted that “we receive on average three to four hundreds application around the country and different parts of the diaspora a day. So if you multiply, you will understand what had transpire in terms of a backlog of applications.”
Even though there is a backlog of certificates, which has prompted several concerns among citizens, Mr Cummings pointed out that there is a high number of return mails.
This means that persons are unable to receive their certificates when delivered because they are not producing accurate data on their form.
However, the Register General has assured us that they are working to address the issue of backlog.
He said, “we are printing about five hundred (certificates) a day we are trying to up the amount, while it may look like plenty it’s not really.”
To this end, Mr Cummings said there are not enough permanent staff attached to the GRO to deal with this backlog. However, he explained that the office has recruited several persons to aid in addressing this issue directly.
On Tuesday last, during the PNCR weekly press conference, their Chairman Shurwayne Holder had indicated that there have been reports of malpractices within the GRO that is causing the processing of certificate to be prolonged.
