The Registry Department – another time

Fri, Sept 30. 2011

Editor: I have seen the good, the bad and the difficult times at the Registry Department. I was in the Registry Department on September 13, 2011, and workmen were in the roof again, repairing it while staff and Search Clerks worked. This is unacceptable.{{more}} The computer system issuing birth certificates broke down on September 15 and there was not a back-up system in place. Members of the public had to wait until the next day to get their birth, death, and marriage certificates. Had there been a back-up system in place, this would not have been a problem.

The Attorney General knows that there are rats in the Registry and that documents are going missing. This situation has been going on for many, many years, but somehow it seems that the problem has escalated, so it seems to have caught the attention of the Attorney General (who was once a Registrar of that said Department for many years), and the current Registrar. Suggestions were made that there are rat thieves at the Registry. I hope that this was a slip of the tongue, because we are human beings working at the Registry, and not four legged-rats, one cannot get anymore disrespectful than that.

The security system that is currently in place at the Registry is not a bad idea, but the Registry Department, on a whole, needs cleaning up. One way of doing so is to remove it from its current location and make it habitable for staff and users alike; the working situation is not nice there. Truly, not everyone likes to write, for whatever reason. But this Department needs to be in the forefront, because it contributes millions of dollars a week to the coffers of the Government’s Treasury. From Monday to Friday, Search Clerks have to sit on a tough bench to conduct searches because there are not enough chairs and space to do our work.

What I write in these letters is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Anyone could come and see for themselves. We are all intelligent people, and we need to take responsibility and blame for our actions. It is more than high time for some drastic improvements and renovations at the Registry Department.

‘Chow’