RGD Regional Office in Port Antonio Focusing on Outreach Programme

As the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) continues to improve the services it offers to the public, the Port Antonio Regional Office is making a special effort to sensitise the people of deep rural communities about those services, and the ways in which they can be accessed.
The office was opened in February last year, and covers the parishes of Portland, St. Thomas and St. Mary. It offers services in a number of areas, including birth and death registrations, late registration of name, re-registration of name, registry weddings and genealogical research.
In an interview with JIS News, Robert Andrade, Regional Manager in Port Antonio, said the office has been conducting an extensive outreach programme in the parishes to widen the department’s clientele.
He said the outreach programme was placing a special focus on the recently introduced Application Tracking System, which came into operation at the Port Antonio office on Wednesday, February 1.
The system which has been in use by the RGD since April 2002, is regarded as one of the most important achievements by the department since it became an Executive Agency in 1999.
Its operation enables the RGD to deliver a more efficient service as a result of the swift and accurate tracking process it follows in respect of applications it receives from its customers.
In using the system, customers no longer have to complete an application form as they were formerly required to do. They are only required to provide a customer service officer with their entry number, which will be used to track the relevant information on computer in order to provide the customer with the service requested. Describing the new system as very user friendly, Mr. Andrade said the people of the region were responding positively to its introduction, although there was a definite need for more persons to become aware of it and utilise the service it offers.
He noted that there was a surge in customer applications immediately after the system was introduced, but that the situation has now returned to normal.
Mr. Andrade expressed confidence that more people in the region would access the services at the Regional Office once the outreach programme reached their communities, adding that not only would they find the service efficient, but they would also benefit from the convenience of doing business at the Port Antonio office, instead of travelling to the headquarters in Spanish Town.
Also speaking to JIS News were a number of RGD customers, who said they appreciated the introduction of the Application Tracking System.
They expressed optimism that it would continue to meet its objective of providing swift and efficient service.