RGD Records Success Rate of 90%

Minister of Health, John Junor has said that at the end of the 2004/05 financial year, the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) recorded a 90 per cent success rate, printing 261,450 certificates from the 288,089 applications received.
He also noted that under the RGD’s door-to-door delivery system, some 242,115 of those certificates were delivered for the fiscal year.
Mr. Junor was making his contribution to the 2005/06 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives, yesterday (May 11).
Meanwhile, the customer online query system and the application tracking system continued to provide easy access to information on the status of applications, Mr. Junor noted. The agency received several commendations from customers who were able to track their applications online through the RGD’s website, and complaints had decreased, he added.
Minister Junor also made note of the RGD’s three new regional offices in Port Antonio, Portland; Santa Cruz, St. Elizabeth; and Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, which brings to seven the total number of regional offices. He pointed out that the South East regional office was relocated in the first quarter to more spacious, convenient premises at 4 Trevennion Park Road, Kingston.
During the second quarter of the last financial year, the agency conducted sub-audit of birth and stillbirth registrations occurring in hospitals, using the Spanish Town Hospital as the testing facility. “An RGD representative was given the mandate of capturing all births and stillbirths that occurred at the maternity ward. The contact with this hospital continues to ensure that all vital events are reported to the RGD,” Mr. Junor told the House.
Meanwhile, preliminary figures for total registrations for the year in review indicate that for the period April to September 2004, some 20,913 vital events were registered. The calendar year figures indicate that for January to September, a total of 63,474 registrations were collected. Of this number, 34,401 related to live births, while 10,978 were deaths, 462 were stillbirths, 288 were infant deaths and 17,521 were marriages.
In addition, the Health Minister reported that a Bill of Sale project was implemented during the fiscal year to: determine the number of lending agencies that submitted; identify those companies that are not complying with section five of the Bill of Sale Act; identify companies that no longer submit Bill of Sale to the Island Records Office (IRO) and the reasons; educate companies on their responsibilities to Enter Satisfaction when an obligation under a Bill of Sale has been discharged. Total documents recorded by the IRO at the end of 2004/05 were 22,844.
Minister Junor highlighted the RGD’s North American outreach programme from July 10-26, 2004, where cities in Florida, Georgia, Washington, New Jersey, Toronto and Montreal were visited and presentations made to more than 500 Jamaican emigrants. For this fiscal year, the RGD plans to re-develop and re-launch its website; carry out a vital data project; conduct online registration from registration centres and create online payment options.