Citizenship

Dec 18, 2016 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

---

(Excerpts from Budget 2017 presentation in the National Assembly by Hon. Winston Felix DSM, MP)
The recently created Department of Citizenship within the Ministry of the Presidency, an initiative

of His Excellency President David Granger, encompasses such activities as applications for passports, processing of applications for visas and work permits by foreign nationals, processing of persons seeking naturalisation and registration as citizens of Guyana, and the registration of births, marriages and deaths.
Guyana embraces visitors and where applicable, visas are sought to enable their arrival for various reasons, such as tourism, business, employment, education and those engaged in Government business. Therefore various categories of visas have been applied for and issued to facilitate visitors entering Guyana on arrival at a Port of Entry. As of September 2016, 1163 visas of various categories have been issued to nationals from 76 countries as compared to the year 2015 when similar applications for visas were approved and issued to 1171 foreign nationals from 74 countries.
Visas to enter Guyana is a requirement for foreign nationals but the location of our Consular Offices, Embassies and High Commissions sometimes require persons to travel long distances. Government proposes in 2017 to create a facility for online visa applications, to enable foreign nationals to make their travel arrangements successfully prior to arrival in Guyana.
While considering the supplementary estimates of expenditure in 2015, a request for the release of funds was sought to acquire equipment for the Immigration Department. This was to address local and foreign needs for speedier processing of passports. This request was approved. The equipment arrived in August 2016 and was put into immediate use. The result was that passports for the Diaspora are processed within five to seven days and the impact locally was the elimination of long lines and the removal of unnecessary inconvenience to the public seeking a simple service. In addition, many former sceptics have expressed satisfaction with the transformation of the service.
Our quest for improvement in the passport service has led to the consideration of decentralization of the service to parts of the country where citizens would benefit the most. The Georgetown Passport Office is overcrowded and as of November 25, 2016 that Office processed 105,068 passports and of that number, 14456 passports were prepared for the Diaspora.
By decentralization we are seeking to:
o improve efficiency of the system by allowing the acceptance of applications for passports to be a Regional activity and the completed passports are returned to, and delivered in the Regions and;
o Consequently, deliver a higher quality of service to our citizens.
The concept of Capital Towns intends that services offered by Government could be accessed in these towns and this has informed the decision to decentralize the service. In August, 2016 one such Office was opened in Linden, Region No. 10, and at the end of November 2016, another was established in New Amsterdam, in Region No. 6. Other Capital Towns under consideration are Mabaruma, Region No. 1 and Bartica, Region No. 7. The Potaro-Siparuni and Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo Regions would be considered for a mobile service.
This is the first installment of the plan to decentralize the service. Budgetary allocations have been made to construct two permanent structures to be utilized as passport offices, one in New Amsterdam and the other at Linden. The completion of these buildings would accommodate equipment to facilitate first time applicants being processed, which would be an upgrade of what is happening now, thereby completing the entire application process in its decentralized state.
In his address to the National Assembly on October 13, 2016, His Excellency the President expressed his intention to table the Immigration (Amendment) Bill in 2017 to delink the Immigration Department from the Guyana Police Force. This is a follow-up to a recommendation of the Disciplined Forces Commission in 2004 where recommendation 15 on page 52 states:
Civilians should be contracted to perform police functions that do not require police training:-
· Examination of vehicles for road fitness certificates;
· Processing of Passport applications;
· Typing and secretarial work.
This is an area where the Opposition while in Government never sought to implement these decisions, but this APNU/AFC government will do so.
Birth Certificates are important identity documents for everyone, particularly children. Birth Certificates facilitate immunization which protects children against diseases. The document proves to school administrators that the child has reached school age and could be admitted. It also enables law enforcement to determine whether or not a person in custody is a child or an adult.
Our children are our future and we must protect them. In this regard, the Coalition is working with UNICEF to ensure that all children are registered at birth. We are proceeding to achieve one hundred per cent birth registration of children. There have been outreaches in the outlying Regions in Guyana, except Regions 3 and 4, funded by UNICEF and there were 491 late registrations recorded in the other Regions. Late Registration occurs when the one-year period required by law passes without the birth of the child being registered. There are more unregistered births which will be pursued in 2017.
The need to have all births registered supports a wider plan to digitize the records at the General Register’s Office (GRO). Already, a project has commenced and is continuing to build a database of records between 1987 and the current period. There is another period between 1896 and 1986. This project is about to commence as the procurement process is pursued. When both projects are completed, we would be prepared to print our birth certificates and achieve;
o Faster searches for birth records;
o Reduction of the time it now takes to produce a birth certificate;
o The system would become a reliable database to create a national identity system which is supported by biometric features.
We should recall His Excellency’s recent pronouncement while addressing the National Assembly on October 13, 2016. He promised to table the National Registration (Amendment) Bill to allow for the inclusion of biometrics of citizens to be recorded on their national registration cards. Currently, work is being done to identify international best practices to aid the development of our system. This is a work in progress.

---

---