PAST SITUATION
In previous years, all rectifications to be performed on civil status records were effected at the Adjudicator’s Office which was then located on the William Peter Boulevard. Court Orders (Adjudicator’s Rectifications). It was not uncommon for Adjudicators Rectifications to take a number of months to be completed, due to the complicated process and resources available at the time.
The introduction of the post of Manager, as well employment of contractual workers, improved the efficiency with which applications were processed. Applications for vital records took on average three (3) to four (4) weeks to be processed, with one week time frame for emergencies.
With the establishment of the new requirements by the Passport Office of the certified birth certificate (to replace the Birth and Baptismal Certificate previously utilized) in order to obtain new or renewed passports, an influx of customers to the Civil Status Registry was created. During that time, certificates took on average three months (or more) to be processed, especially before the position of Manager, Civil Status Registry was put in place. Once this influx settled, customers generally received their records within a three to four week period.
Prior to the employment of NICE and contractual workers under the Computer-Aided Birth Certificate project, the staff complement stood at nine (9) employees.
The total number of applications processed on average during that period was twenty to twenty four thousand (20,000 – 24,000) yearly.
CURRENT SITUATION
The Civil Status Registry now currently consists of a staff complement of twenty-eight (28), comprising the following:
- Public officers on Permanent Establishment – 13
- NICE/Contract workers – 16
The staff complement is broken down as follows:
| SECTION | NO. OF OFFICERS | SECTION | NO. OF OFFICERS |
| Manager | 1 | ||
| Customer Service Officers | 2 | Verifiers | 5 |
| Applications Booth | 3 | Executive Officer | 1 |
| Rectifications Booth | 3 | Senior Executive Officer | 1 |
| Scanners | 2 | Data Entry Clerks | 3 |
| Vault Attendant | 1 | Collections Clerk | 2 |
| Printers | 5 |
Applications Process
- Regular applications for records with clean data (not requiring rectification) are now processed within two (2) to three (3) days. Emergency applications are processed within half an hour of application. (Note: This is down from three to four weeks for regular applications and one week for emergencies). This also includes applications for re-registrations (once the relevant statutory declarations have been produced).
- Applications for Registrar’s Rectifications to vital records are now processed within twenty-four (24) hours for emergency applications. This process requires a longer processing time as Rectification packages are to be approved by the relevant authorized officer (Registrar/Deputy Registrar), entries corrected in relevant register, scanning and subsequent printing of rectified certificate. All of this is done, in general, within the space of one (1) day, compared to the processing time of several months, as was previously the case.
Where additional documentation is required by the Department based on the type of rectification (eg., affidavits to substantiate a customer’s name) processing time is determined by time taken by the customer to bring in the requisite documentation. Once all documentation is available to the Department, rectifications are processed within the day. Customers are facilitated as much as possible to ensure that rectifications were completed within an acceptable period of time. As a result, the back and forth of customers has been significantly lessened.
- Applications for Adjudicator’s Rectifications (Court Orders) are processed within a seven (7) day These are more complex and usually require an interview process and submission of statutory declarations/affidavits.
For the year 2014, total number of vital records processed stood at Forty thousand, two hundred and twenty-four, (40,224).
The current enhanced process for emergency applications is as follows:
- Customers is directed by Customer Service Clerks to Applications Booth, where a search for the record is conducted and citation entered on the application form
- Customers proceed to Cashier to pay for application, and then to Collections Section to collect certificate.
- Customers wait in Collections Section and collect certificate within twenty (20) minutes