Desist from using certificates with incorrect names – Registrar General

Persons who are in receipt of a birth, marriage or death certificate with incorrect names or other information have been asked to desist from using them in transactions until the errors are corrected.
Registrar General Raymond Cummings made this appeal on Monday, as he outlined that there is a mountain of certificates used by the populace which does not correspond with that in the General Register Office system.
“There are too many certificates with errors or too many people using names that are not listed in our system and thing that was the name they were given. And then when we check our system, we find there are differences either in the spellings or the variations of the spelling of the name,” he expressed.
If a person would like to have their document corrected, they can contact the office and a legal process will facilitate the changes. Cummings has encouraged for this to be done before using the document to conduct any business.
“We need persons who may have had certificates with varying spellings and so on to make contact with us so we can have these things clarified in our system. There is a legal process that allows persons to have those errors corrected.”

He added, “One of the things I want to encourage persons is if you received a certificate, and the information on that certificate does not correspond with the information that you think it is, do not go using that certificate and then after say ‘this is not my certificate’. You need to immediately contact us so that whatever is the error or you perceive the error to be, it can either be corrected in our system.”
During a pandemic, services offered by the GRO were digitalised – an advantage in preventing lines and large gatherings. The Registrar General said the public should make use of these online platforms.
“We do quite a lot of work online now. We launched those platforms last year November but it has taken traction and we are actually responding quite a lot to the queries we’re getting online and through these platforms. We want to encourage people to use it, not to necessarily visit us because with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, we need to have the least persons as possible coming to our office,” Cummings detailed.
It was reported that the distribution of computer-generated certificates commenced this week. The computer-generated certificates, typically issued for births, deaths and marriages, will now have enhanced security features such as a QR code to the top left-hand corner of the certificate and invisible markings, readable only under a black light.
When scanned, stakeholders seeking identification will be able to authenticate the document provided.
The certificates to be issued are similar in colour and size to the ones presently being issued and all information will be printed by computer.