From last August to the present, the backlog at Land Registry has been significantly reduced, according to Attorney-General Basil Williams, who said on Thursday that the focus this year will be on capacity building.
“The Land Registry is now located centrally and has made tremendous strides in removing the years of debilitating slothfulness. The new Registrar and her team are to be commended,” Williams said during his contribution to the budget debate.
According to the figures he delivered to the House, there were over 3,500 private transfers that have been reduced by 2,500; over 5,000 Ministry of Housing transfers, which are down by 1,600; 325 mutilated/lost titles cases that are down by 275; and 650 mortgage cases down by 640.
Williams said that the Land Registry will embark on capacity building aimed at ensuring that all members of staff are equipped to discharge their duties efficiently. He said too that the Land Registry’s service to Essequibo will resume and the records of Land Holding in Land Registration areas will be restored and preserved.
The House was informed that the commercial registry is 80% digitised.
Williams said that the Commercial Registry, having moved into new premises, is “confidently seeking to build its capacity to give speedy and efficient service to the Guyanese people.”
He told the House that the Auditor-General’s report shows that only 38% of trademark certificates are issued annually. This backlog, he said, has persisted for over 20 years even though a trademark is supposed to be issued four years after application.
Presently, the Intellectual Property Automation System is being used to reduce this backlog by enabling searches, examination and the generation of certificates for trademarks, he informed.
Williams told the House that by June, 2016 month end, Trademark Certificates will be issued three months after application once all statutory requirements are met by the agents.
Patents filed since 2003 are being advertised in the official Gazette and subsequently certificates are issued, he said, while adding that companies’ Certificates of Incorporation and Business Registrations are now issued within four days of application.
According to the AG, more than half of the $110M donated by the Canadian government to strengthen the Criminal Justice System will be utilised this year.
Williams told the House that in July, a Hague Convention Conference will be held in Guyana and $16M has been set aside for it. The conference, he said, will be held in partnership with UNICEF Guyana and The Hague Conference on Private and International Law.
He said that the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs managed to fulfill the promises made in the last budget presentation and among those he named are the housing of the commercial and land registries at new premises; appointments of registrar and deputy registrar to head the commercial registry; reducing backlog at the land registry and the passage of law to create a permanent Law Reform Commission.
