Residents who have recently raised concerns of the need of stricter birth registration service in the community of Thomas Hill, Mabaruma, Region One (Barima-Waini), are now being reassured that the situation will be addressed as the town of Mabaruma will have an immigration and passport office constructed within the sub-district.
A resident making a request at the public engagement
This message was delivered by Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, during an engagement with some of the residents on Saturday.
The passport office, which will be the third of its kind, since similar offices were commissioned in Linden and Berbice to the tune of $31 million and $57.5 million respectively, will serve residents of the Mabaruma, Matarkai and Moruca sub-districts,
The need for decentralising public services especially to the hinterland communities was highlighted by Harmon as he stated that a high premium is set on public services, such as education, health and increased river and road connectivity.
“We have begun the decentralisation of Government services so that the access to direct services is much easier for citizens. In all of the townships, we are going to establish these extensions of Government services so you can expect that coming very soon so you won’t have to go to Georgetown. Everything is right at your doorstep. This is what we call a paradigm shift,” Harmon noted.
But even while these promises were made, residents requested more efficiency in the registration system within the region in order to ease the burden residents have been faced with over the last few decades in obtaining birth certificates, passports and marriage certificates. “Residents leave from here to go to town to look after birth certificates and sometimes it takes months to come back,” one resident said.
Harmon further explained that the establishment of the passport office in the township will allow for greater extension of services such as the registration of births and deaths.
