Births and Deaths Registry to receive authority status
The Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD) is collaborating with the Ministry of Justice and Office of the Attorney-General to prepare legal requirements for the elevation of the National Office of the Births and Deaths Registry to become an Authority.
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The measure is to enhance the capacity of the registry to perform its mandate effectively for planning. The Births and Deaths Registry exists to provide accurate, reliable and timely information on all births and deaths occurring within Ghana for the socio-economic development of the country through their registration and certification.
Consequently, plans are underway to provide an office complex for the registry to ease congestion at its national office, which serves an average of 400 people daily.
The Local Government Minister, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, made this known during a tour of the Registry in Accra last Monday. He also toured selected agencies under the local government ministry including the Department of Parks and Gardens and the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS).
Mr Korsah said putting up an office complex would equally ensure that a more spacious office accommodation was provided for the registry. Currently, the agency is housed in part of the offices of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) with registration exercises taking place within a small space on the NALAG premises.
The minister observed that its current situation did not befit its status as a national and strategic agency meant to aid development through the provision of reliable data.
“Births and Deaths Registry is very important, a strategic national agency that needs national or government support to be able to situate its operations well in terms of the reforms that it's going through, the application of information and technology to enhance its operations and better serve the public” he stressed.
Mr Korsah stated that the elevation of the registry to an authority status would equip the agency with what he described as “far-reaching powers to enhance the operations and make it more effective.”
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Criminal activities
The minister observed that the elevation would ensure that more resources were provided to be able to effectively deal with people who had a penchant for breaking into the computerised system to tamper with data and duplicate people's registration identity numbers.
“We are just discussing how, in the recent past, people have been able to infiltrate the system, tamper with data, and duplicate people's registration identity numbers now, when the registry becomes an authority, they should have that capacity to deal with some of these things, enhance their operations, add more security features to whatever they are doing and so on” he added.
Meanwhile, the registry has embarked on a nationwide mop-up mass registration exercise to register 30,000 Ghanaians across the country.
The exercise, which started on Monday,(July 22) will end on Friday, July 26, 2024, and it is targeted at children and adults. However, the registration of babies between the ages of zero and 12 months will not attract any fees. All other beneficiaries will be required to visit the Registry's website at www.ghana.gov.gh and apply for registration at a fee.
The Head of Statistics, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of the Registry, Constance Clara Anani, in an interview, explained that the Registry was deploying its officers to marketplaces, hospitals and other important places to register people. She said the Registry had been collaborating with the Ghana Health Service to register births and deaths when they occur.
Encroachment
At the Department of Parks and Gardens, the Minister issued a warning to private developers to stay away from the department's lands. The warning came when he found out that a private developer had placed a container on a part of the land the department owned.
Mr Korsah said the ministry would do everything in its power to protect government lands, including the department's lands. The Acting Director of the department, Dr Daniel Adams, stated that it was impossible for anybody to just take over lands it owned.
He, therefore, dispelled rumours that the department had sold its lands to private developers.
Dr Adams said currently, there were about 116 species of trees it was nursing on its lands and entreated the media to help educate the public to keep away from the department's properties.
He stressed that the mandate of the department was to develop and promote effective landscape beautification in the nation's cities, towns and individual homes, as well as to maintain and sustain all landscape areas on road medians, shoulders and roundabouts.