Dear Editor,
As a legal marriage officer and Reverend/Pastor, I have a few concerns pertaining to some issues with marriage, birth and death certificate applications at GPOC.I will first deal with the marriage issue as as a legal marriage officer it has been bothering me for some time now. My first concern is about the registration and application for marriage certificates. Since August this year, I performed a legal marriage for a couple in my church. I went to the marriage section and registered the marriage the day after I finished the marriage. I went downstairs to the birth, marriage and death certificates application booth and applied for the marriage certificate.
After four weeks I did not receive the marriage certificate, so I went back to the marriage section and made another inquiry. I was told the certificate had not been prepared as yet but they would send it; another two weeks passed and I did not receive the certificate. I went back to the post office and made another inquiry and was told I should make another application since GPOC went through a period of ‘’fumigation’‘ which I still cannot comprehend up to today. I made the application and waited two more weeks but still did not receive the certificate.
I went back to GPOC again upstairs with my duplicate of the marriage I did, along with the two application receipts and gave it to a clerk. She told me they have my documents but the certificate is not prepared as yet. I asked when it would be done but she could not give me a proper date and answer.
I believe as a Reverend & Legal Marriage officer I should have been treated with more respect and dignity and not pushed around by staff who I believe are not qualified to be employed there. To date I have received no marriage certificate and the folks whose marriage I did are worried since they need their marriage certificate for immigration purposes. I noticed in themarriage section just one woman working. I had to sit there over one hour just to register a marriage.
This one woman who works in that section has to receive marriage petitions, write receipts, register marriages, and give out marriage licences and many times the office is empty with no staff in it. I also noticed that the staffer working in that section doesn’t wear a badge with picture and name on it.
Why is it only one woman working in that section? While many staff can be seen just liming around eating chip mangoes, gaffing with friends or chatting on their cell phones. Some staff will come into work until around eleven O’ clock. I observed this and some just don’t care; while only a few are working. At the second door where they deal with birth, marriage & death certificate queries it is another whole day’s wait. People will travel from as far as Berbice to be told that their certificates will be posted to them when they could have been given their certificates just there and then if these people working at GPOC were competent enough. Then how reliable is the mail?
For a very small minor clerical error where a birth or marriage certificate needs to be written over and be corrected that applicant will have to be told to go home for his/her certificate to be posted because those who are signing the certificate are not in office, too busy, fallen asleep or are in some meeting or just liming on leave or sick.
In this day and age of technology why all these long stacks of paper and old worn out books when everything should have been computerized? Even those signatures on the birth certificates should have been scanned into a computer and all the clerk has to do is type in the information on the certificate, print it out in colour, insert GPOC’s seal and date on the certificate, countersign it and the process becomes much simpler. Up to today, I have known of tons of people who couldn’t have an ID card and can’t vote because of not having a birth certificate. I also observed a lot of staff working at GPOC will copy and spell people’s names wrong all the time.
How can they copy something wrong? What bothers me now is how many are computer literate? I received a birth certificate with my name spelt ‘’Gidson Leal’‘. On the envelope they gave me a completely different name though my name is legible enough in block letters on the application form. Besides, they ought to know my correct name as I am a marriage officer of more than ten years.
I also note with a great deal of interest as a legal marriage officer that a marriage licence that was given free in the marriage section now costs $5000 so it means it costs more for a person to get married legally. Why is it a Marriage Officers meeting was not called by the Ministry of Home Affairs for us to voice our opinion on this sudden rise in cost for a marriage licence? Why no circular or letter was sent out to the various religious organizations about the rise in cost for the marriage licence. I believe $5000 is too high since the person who wishes to marry will have to pay a JP to fill out their marriage petition at least $3000, then pay another $5000 for their marriage licence, then they have to pay their marriage officer; or they may choose to marry at GPOC. After all the running around and travel more than $12,000 will be spent just for the legal aspect of their marriage. In this time of economic hardships in Guyana I believe this $5000 for a marriage licence should be reduced to $1000 to meet the poor people’s needs.
Another observation, downstairs at the booth where I have to apply for marriage, birth & death certificates is another headache since only one staffer works there and has to write down everything in a book, give out receipts, sell forms and stamps etc. The line there some days will have over 100 people and just one staffer working while many staff are just liming about inside their offices and outside the GPOC building. How can these people receive the government money by false pretence? Money which they never earn. Just 10AM in the day in the section where stamps are sold and letters are posted, just three staff will work from about twelve booths then some staff just sit in their booths pretending to do something so they put up a sign ‘’next wicket please’‘ while pensioners, old people up to eighty years old have to make a line touching the public road.
It is my firm opinion that a real clean up of staff and strict measures need to be implemented at GPOC to remove all of this incompetence I have listed here in this letter. I still ask myself the question: what have we achieved after 45 years of independence?
Why all these long lines in most of our government offices in Guyana? What I have seen today in most of our government offices is a real lack of administration where those in power care less about the citizens of this nation.
I hope those in authority deal with these issues I have raised here.
Yours faithfully,
Rev. Gideon Cecil
