Work restarts at Registrar General's office, Tobago

STAFF at the civil registry in the Registrar General’s office, Tobago, have begun to receive their credentials, allowing them to resume civil registry services, including issuing birth, marriage and death certificates, Central Administrative Services Tobago (CAST) has said.

The action comes less than a week after THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine called on the Prime Minister and Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, to investigate the reason why Tobagonians were being prevented from accessing services of the Registrar General’s department.

In a statement from his office last Friday, Augustine said he had received numerous complaints from Tobagonians about their inability to access services from the department.

Augustine said he was advised that the Deputy Registrar General (Tobago), appointed by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission to the Office of the Prime Minster, CAST, was “arbitrarily locked out” from the online system by a senior public servant from the Registrar General’s department, which falls within the remit of the Attorney General’s office.

He said he was also advised that this “arbitrary action is related to a difference of opinion between the senior public servant at the Registrar General’s department in Trinidad and the Central Administrative Services, Tobago, regarding an administrative protocol, which is totally unrelated to the processing of civil, land and company documents at the Registrar general s office, Tobago.”

Augustine said the action was tantamount to misbehaviour in public office.

But in a one-page statement on Monday, CAST said, “Following a temporary disruption of services in Tobago, the restoration of civil registry services was prioritised to ensure that the public continues to have access to the critical services provided by the unit.”