I write to inform the authorities at the Registrar General's Department that its customers are not deceived by the swift initial processing of requests for such documents as birth certificates, death certificates, etc.

The garnering of an individual's details in order to carry out research to prepare the final document is usually fairly swift, especially if the applicant can provide all the details such as a copy of the old birth certificate. However, the swiftness stops there.

No information

Having paid for the express response service, that is, delivery within three days, of a birth certificate for example, the public is thereafter prohibited from obtaining any information as to the status of preparation or proximity to readiness of the document should the promised date of delivery have passed. There is a recording on the RGD telephone that their "switch board is out of service" (which has been there since at least last year June when I applied for the death certificates of my parents) and the cell phone numbers quickly given as contact points are not answered and cannot take any messages.

I applied for my son's birth certificate on May 1 and, after paying at the cashier window, I was advised that I should get same by Monday, May 4, one day earlier than the processing officer told me. I am writing at 10 a.m. on May 9, at which time I have not heard from the department nor received the said certificate.

As all documents are to be delivered and the applicant cannot retrieve it in person, one is at the mercy of the delivery service. Certainly, it must be cheaper to the RGD and, by extension the Government, if individuals were allowed to collect their document in as orderly a manner as the request is processed.

I do wish the Registrar General's Department would reconsider this delivery process so that promises made by its staff can be honoured and the blighted reputation of the Department cleared.

I am, etc.,

M. DAVIS

betonmel@hotmail.com