Residents of St Ignatius, Kumu, Quarrie, and other neighbouring villages in Region Nine were the beneficiaries of a legal mobile services initiative that was the brainchild of President Irfaan Ali and executed by the Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs.
According to a release from the Department of Public Information (DPI), on Friday a team from the aforementioned ministry along with the Deeds and Commercial Services Registries Authority, Restorative Justice Centre, and other essential agencies, conducted a three-day outreach in the region, beginning in Lethem.
The DPI reported that the services were met with overwhelming appreciation from the residents, many of whom had struggled for years to obtain much-needed important documents due to the challenges of travelling to Georgetown or Essequibo. As such, the mobile outreach provided efficient, cost-effective, and hassle-free access to these services. And with the establishment of a permanent office in Lethem, residents will soon have year-round access to these essential services.
One grateful beneficiary, 56-year-old Benita Ignatius, a newly established poultry business owner from Quarrie, expressed her satisfaction with the ease of registering her enterprise, the release said. “I got through really fast,” she was quoted as saying. “I filled up the forms and paid off one time. I’m glad we’re getting an office in Lethem so when it’s time to get the renewal, I can do it. They are really helping me out here.”
According to the release, Tafline Singh from Tabatinga echoed these sentiments: “This has never happened before. I feel so good that a team could come and give us our service so we don’t have to go to Georgetown. With the new office, it’ll serve the people in the region, so we won’t have to travel so far.”
“It was very efficient. I got through as soon as I came. The staff were very informative. Normally we have to travel to Georgetown to look at things like the deed poll, so instead of spending all the money on transportation, it’s really good that they brought it here, so less cost for us,” Nicole Ambrose was quoted as saying.
James La Rose told DPI that he had been trying for years to acquire a birth certificate for his younger brother, but to no avail. “Today was a great opportunity for me. I have been trying to do this for a long time and today, finally…We have never had this opportunity. If they hadn’t come, it would’ve taken longer,” he was quoted as saying. When asked for his views on the establishment of a permanent office, La Rose told the DPI that he was relieved because it was a much-needed initiative, “like the passport office… we now have a passport office [and] we can now get our other documents quite easily. So, I think that is a great step forward for our region.”
Another resident, Marva Houseworth was quoted as saying, “I heard an office will be opened up here, and this is great because at least we won’t have to wait so long for our papers to come through.”
Linda Fredericks, a senior councillor from Kumu Village, was there to acquire birth certificates for several residents from her village. “This is the first time I’m seeing things like this happening,” she was quoted as saying. “It is a good idea for them to get an office, because the Rupununi will benefit a lot.”
Junie Ann Francisco was also quoted as saying: “Today, I got my deed poll, and all I have to do now is go to GECOM [Guyana Elections Commission]… some people applied for birth certificates and it would take years, so this programme is great. It is definitely faster.”
Meanwhile, the release said, Regional Chairman Bryan Allicock affirmed that the initiative was yet another facet of the government’s comprehensive plan to bridge the gap between the coast and the hinterland. It quoted him as saying to the residents, “This is one way of reaching out to the people. Eventually we will have two personnel here in the region doing this on a daily basis. So, you won’t have to travel to Georgetown.”
The DPI said Registrar of the Deeds Registry Azeena Baksh explained that it was the first time residents in Region Nine were able to access same-day registration for any document and acknowledged that the process would have been lengthy if they had not shown up to assist.
