THE EDITOR, Sir:
WITH ALL the advertisement re: improved service at the Registrar-General Department - it is all a fraud or deception. April 2, 2002, I applied for two copies of my daughter's birth certificate. I supplied all the necessary information as well as $500 in postal orders by registered post. On May 2, I called to enquire and was told that the application was received and was being processed. I have been waiting ever since.
On May 24 I went to Montego Bay to make enquiries. I was told they do not deal with anyone who does not have the receipt that is issued from their office. As I saw it the only thing for me to do was to make another application, which I did. I was told that I must give two to four weeks. So I am waiting to see what will happen.
I think it is a shame that the public has to be taken on these kinds of round-a-bout ways to get service that it is paying for.
Present at the Montego Bay office was a man who had applied for a birth certificate from July 2001, and he had not yet received it.
I also learnt that the $500 should be given for a seven-day service.
I am calling on the Registrar General's office to do better.
I am, etc.,
LOIS BRYCE
Falmouth, P.O.
Trelawny
