COJ to Continue Public Education Programme in 2007/08

For the 2007/08 financial year, the Companies Office of Jamaica (COJ) will be focusing on its continued public education programme on the Companies Act (2004), and education on recent amendments to the Registration of Business Names Act.
According to a Ministry Paper tabled in the House on June 6 by Minister of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, Phillip Paulwell, the COJ will also “continue staff training on (the) Companies Act, company law and company secretarial practice.”
The document also notes that the COJ aims to: improve its service to customers with particular attention to strategies aimed at reducing waiting time for attendance; upgrade its website to facilitate online registration and payments; and re-organize operational units in order to improve human resource capabilities and customer service.
For the 2006/07 financial year, the COJ focused on preparing for the implementation of the Document Processing Management Information System in March 2007.
“All operational units were intricately involved in user acceptance testing, completion of check list, which were imported into the new software, preparation of test plans and retesting of all discrepancies,” the Ministry Paper noted.
Also for the financial year 2006/07, the COJ mobile team visited the parishes of St. Ann, St. Thomas, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, Clarendon, and Hanover allowing enterprises in these parishes access to the COJ, and to update their filings.
According to the Ministry Paper, all officers at the COJ underwent customer service audit, which was conducted in May 2006. “The purpose of the training was to equip officers with the requisite skills and technique to accommodate change and deliver enhanced customer service,” the document explained.
The COJ is an Executive Agency and is responsible for the administration of the Companies Act, the Registration of Business Names Act and the Industrial and Provident Societies Act.
As a consequence, the agency is responsible for the registration and regulation of companies, business names and industrial and provident societies. The COJ is also the official repository of information pertaining to those entities.