Dear Editor,
I conducted my first marriage ceremony on 13th of Dec, 2003. The marriage certificate was collected two days after the registration was lodged. The system, back then was simple and humane. Humane because it is reasonable to assume that married couples need their certificates. Humane also because a first certificate was issued simultaneously upon GRO receiving a completed registration form.
It’s now 2021, eighteen years after, and 55 years after independence, and a marriage certificate applied for in April 2021 is still to be delivered.
Editor, I am forming the opinion that the new management system at this entity reeks of incompetence. It gets worse when I consider that the department processes an average of less than 15 certificates daily. How ridiculous can we be as a country?
I am recommending that the Registry reverts to issuing a first certificate at the time the marriage is registered. The fees for the certificate can be included in the cost for processing the marriage licence.
Thank you Editor. But I am still awaiting more than a dozen certificates applied for in the first six months of 2021.
Yours faithfully,
Ovid Schultz
