The nearly two months of frustration felt by citizens following the June 5 edict by Ministry of Home Affairs, which forced citizens to procure recent birth certificates in order to apply for passports might have come to an end last week, but indications are that the tedium is to be increased at the Central Immigration and Passport Office.
What Mr Rohee had said when the startling order was first made that required persons to have birth certificates issued no longer than six months before the date of applying for a passport was that there were concerns about fraudulent birth certificates being used to obtain travel documents.
Just how the application for a new birth certificate was expected to address those concerns was not revealed. But one would have thought that if there was a suspicion that fraud existed the way to deal with it would have been to investigate it, find the person/s involved and prosecute him/her/them.
Instead, the General Register’s Office (GRO) suddenly found itself with a flood of new applications for birth certificates, once again laying bare its deficiencies. Let’s face it, the numerous complaints made by persons applying for birth certificates prior to June 5 made it clear that the GRO was barely managing to deal with the applications it was already receiving. A visit to the GRO would quickly reveal why.
The GRO is located on the top floor of the Guyana Post Office Corporation building in a huddle of hot, cramped offices.
When a birth certificate is being prepared for a newborn, the process is simple enough. The mother or father (if the couple is married) or both parents if unwed approaches the GRO office (there are also offices in Essequibo and Berbice) with the necessary identification and documents. The birth is registered and a certificate issued.
However, when the applicant is an adult, the original registration must be found and this can sometimes pose a challenge if, for instance, the person is not completely sure where in Guyana he/she was born. The process can take weeks or even months to be completed.
While the GRO has a ‘Microfilming Unit’, much of its records remain in paper format and staff must often peruse huge bound volumes to locate the original birth registration. It is all handwritten, of course, and one imagines that a key requisite for employment at the GRO must be excellent calligraphy skills.
The process is tedious, labour-intensive and horribly antiquated. Not that the staff at the GRO are to be blamed for this. They must work with the tools at their disposal, which appear to not have changed much since the 19th century.
As incongruent as it may seem, the GRO has a website, gro.moha.gov.gy, which must be among the best kept secrets of the Home Affairs Ministry, since persons who have queries still go traipsing up to the GRO. The website appears to be up-to-date and contains a wealth of information as regards all of the processes one needs follow and documentation required when seeking to apply for birth or death certificates or marriage licences. There are even samples of the application forms online. Yet, applicants must still go to the post office and purchase these forms and return them to the post office with the nominal fee. Persons residing overseas can probably obtain the forms at the country’s consulates, but must post same to GRO along with a money order to cover the fee.
One would hope however that the intention is to eventually make the website viable so that applications can be made and paid for online, cutting out some of the paperwork.
One hopes too that attention will be given to bringing the GRO fully into the 21st century. Its records ought to be digitalised and its systems fully computerised to make the processing of a birth certificate that much more efficient. This will bring relief to not just the impatient public, but to the long-suffering GRO staff.