Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, yesterday declared open the Department of Citizen-ship’s new $57.5M Immigration office in Canje, New Amsterdam, East Berbice-Corentyne (Region Six).
According to a release from the Minis-try of the Presidency, Harmon said: “When we first came into office, … President (David Granger) met with Minister Winston Felix and myself and gave us some clear directions on what he sees to be the services that should be available to the Guyanese public, especially with regard to passports and birth certificates. Since then, the Minister has gone on a crusade to ensure that the vision of the President is actually put into practice. He has restructured and reorganised not only the Central Passport Office but the way also in which we deal with birth certificates. No longer can you just walk into somewhere and print a birth certificate and turn up somewhere with it. All of our systems started to receive reviewing and revamping and I want to commend the Department of Citizenship for the job they have done,” he said.
Felix, in providing a background to the completion of the office, said that when the administration assumed office in 2015, the Police Force was tasked with receiving applications for passports in the East Berbice- Corentyne region. He noted that this process was extremely slow and therefore, many persons from as far as the Corentyne journeyed to Georgetown from as early as 2 am to line up at the Camp Road, Eve Leary office.
“A visit was paid to the crowded Central Immigration and Passport Office during an afternoon period and interviews were done following which it was discovered that the majority of persons awaiting service were from Regions Five and Six. This triggered the thought of decentralising the Passport Office to areas outside of Georgetown. The President was of the view that these services should be available in capital towns and so Corriverton was visited. However, neither land nor building was accessible or useable. This location entered consideration and the contract was signed. On July 15, 2019, the building was put into operation to test the equipment and the efficiency of the staff. They have responded admirably to the task,” he said.
From July 2019 to date, the release said that the New Amsterdam office has accepted and processed 6,122 applications for passports, which are handled within seven working days.
Felix said that in addition to the cost of the building, the office has been outfitted with equipment to the tune of US$3, 512, 760.
The Immigration office is currently managed by nine staff members and will be outfitted in coming weeks with solar panels for energy generation.
