RGD EXPEDITING PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS
KINGSTON, April 10 (JIS):
Customers of the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) will soon see an improvement in the processing of applications and more timely delivery of documents.
This is as a result of planned improvements to the Records Management and Information Systems with the allocation of $78.65 million as outlined in the 2003/04 Estimates of Expenditure, tabled in the House, last week.
This will see to the establishment of a central registry and a document management system that will enhance the filing, retrieval and retention of documents and records, the conversion of physical records to electronic storage, the integration of all applications, modules and functions and the improvement of the storage and handling of all physical records.
For the period April to December 2002, the department has performed creditably. Some of its accomplishments include formulating a prototype for hotels and guiding the process of hotel marriage for tourists. The RGD has also extended the Internet facilities to all regional offices and commenced work on phase one of the Application Tracking Systems.
In terms of the Birth, Death and Marriage System (BDMS), which has been established as a project to computerise the production of birth, death and marriage certificates, the projection is that for the current fiscal year, records will be available for viewing electronically and the implementation of a robust database.
It will also expand online services to include online payment as well as a private sector partnership, decentralization of certificate delivery and the deployment of web query and to embark on the development of an application tracking system.
The achievements of the department include completing the Death Edit Programme to allow for the extraction and production of data and files to be used for statistical reporting on mortality, completing the testing of the Integrated Data Entry modules for births, deaths and marriages and drafting the formal project charter relating to the Application Tracking System.