HURRICANE DEAN HAS NOT SLOWED OPERATIONS AT RGD

The passage of Hurricane Dean has not slowed operations at the Registrar General’s Department (RGD), with the agency having received some 1,700 applications and printed more than 4,000 certificates since August 21.

“Since August 21, we have accepted 1,717 applications and we have printed 4,527 certificates for our customers. On August 23, we received 108 applications for our express service and on the same day, we were able to complete 97,” said the agency’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Patricia Holness.

She told JIS News that the agency was able to resume full operations after the hurricane as none of the nine regional offices were damaged. The only adjustment to the agency’s opening hours is in effect for the Portmore office until regular electricity supply is restored to the community.

“Our regional office in Portmore would normally close at 7:00 p.m. however, because there are many areas without electricity, we have allowed our staff to leave at 4:30 p.m. Nevertheless, we will continue to open our Portmore office on Saturdays,” she told JIS News.

In terms of the online service, the CEO informed that the facility is up and running. “Our online service is available and our overseas customers can e-mail us as our e-business officers are available to address their e-mails. While our target time for responding to their e-mails was affected by the hurricane, we are now able to respond within 24 hours,” she said.

She further noted that the courier team had commenced home deliveries of certificates. “We continue to offer the full slate of services and customers can expect to receive excellent service,” the CEO reassured.

The RGD is the agency of government that is responsible for recording all births, deaths, marriages and stillbirths occurring in Jamaica and Jamaican waters, for the purpose of providing timely statistical data to support planning by the state.