Attorney General Anil Nandlall has said that steps will resume to acquire the First Federation Building on Croal Street to provide more space to the Deeds and Commercial Registry Authority.
He made this commitment on Friday when he visited the offices of the Authority at the ground floor of the High Court building on Charlotte Street and at Lot 1 High and Commerce streets.
A release yesterday from the AG’s Chambers said that during his visit, the Deputy Registrar of Deeds (ag), Zanna Frank, and Registrar of Companies (ag), Nicole Prince, took the Attorney General on a tour of the two locations and raised with him the challenges that they currently face, including, physical space for staff, as well as storage capacity. The release said that the Attorney General reminded them that the Authority is governed by a board and that the issues will be raised at the next board meeting.
However, the release said that Nandlall promised to work with the board to ensure that the problems are addressed, including, extending the building at High and Commerce streets. Nandlall pointed out that it was during his previous stint as Attorney General that the new location at Avenue of the Republic was acquired from the New Building Society Limited and was retrofitted to house the Commercial Registry and the Land Registry.
He said that the intention then was to obtain possession of the First Federation building and to renovate it for use of the Authority, particularly in relation to vault space to store documents.
The release said that Nandlall outlined his expectation that the two Registries must be continuously modernised to render their operations more efficient and expedient. He warned against bribery and corruption at the Agency, stating that unfortunately, “rumours of that existing at the Agency are publicly quite prevalent. He admonished that any such incident discovered will be properly investigated and persons implicated will be dealt with in accordance with the law”.
