AG boosts Tobago Registrar's office, says failings not government's fault

ATTORNEY GENERAL and Minister of Legal Affairs Reginald Armour, SC, has apologised to Tobagonians for the difficulties they have encountered in accessing services at the Tobago sub-office of the Registrar General’s Department.

To ensure an improved and timely delivery in the delivery of legal services, Armour said an acting deputy registrar has been temporarily assigned to the Tobago office.

In addition, either the deputy registrar general or an assistant registrar will be present in the office between Monday to Friday.

Armour denied that the government was attempting to “recolonise” Tobago through the Registrar General’s Department.

He said some of the problems being experienced by members of the public were owing to "the actions of one or two employees."

He said investigations into their conduct are ongoing.

“I would like to impress upon the public that suggestions of wanting to control everything from Trinidad or to recolonise Tobago through the Registrar General’s Department reflects an alarming lack of understanding of the law or a complete disregard of the responsibilities of leadership,” he told reporters during a news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, Central Administrative Services – Tobago, on December 11.

“There has been no recent change in approved operating procedures in Tobago. There has been no effort by the Cabinet of the government of the Republic of TT, of which I am proud to be Attorney General, to reduce any operational autonomy of the Tobago Office of the Registrar General.

“In fact, the opposite is true. Since the intervention of Cabinet in August of this year, the efforts by both the Cabinet and the Registrar General’s office have been to expand the service capability and to improve on the delivery of services to the people of Tobago.”

Last week, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine claimed Tobago was being taken back in time by central government, as many people were having major difficulties accessing services at the Registrar General’s Department.

Augustine blamed the Cabinet and said the situation was exacerbated after the deputy registrar general resigned in March this year. He claimed she was frustrated out of the job. He asked whether Tobagonians were being punished for voting out the People’s National Movement in the December 2021 THA elections.

He expressed similar concerns about the inability to access legal services in October 2023 and  called on the Prime Minister and Armour to investigate.

Dr Rowley, responding to Augustine’s latest claim at the post-Cabinet news conference on December 5, rejected his view that Tobago was being taken back in time.

He said there “has been no deliberate (attempt) on the part of the government to do any such thing,” but instructed Armour to address the issue comprehensively.

AG meets with Tobago lawyers

On December 11, Armour met with Tobago MPs Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis and Ayanna Webster-Roy and members of the Tobago Lawyers Association, led by its president Dawn Pallackdharry Singh, to thrash out the issue before the news conference.

Armour described the meeting as “meaningful and quite productive.” He was accompanied by Indira Rampaul-Chadee, acting permanent secretary, Office of the Attorney General.

The Tobago Lawyers Association had written to the Law Association earlier this year raising concerns about operational issues that were affecting the service being experienced by the association’s membership and other Tobagonians.

But Armour said the contents of the letter were “politicised with inflammatory remarks being aligned to it but which were not part of the content of the letter."

Among the issues raised by the lawyers were: inadequate staff at the Land Registry Department in Tobago; access to certified copies of deeds taking months; deeds registered in Tobago not being uploaded promptly to the computerised online Land Registry at the Registrar General's Department; IT support to the Registrar General's office in Tobago seemingly being shifted from CAST to the Registrar General in Trinidad.

The lawyers also asked why they were not consulted on the legislative changes which removed the position of deputy registrar general from under CAST to the Office of Registrar General based in Port of Spain.

In moving forward, Armour said one of the measures agreed to by Cabinet on August 15, 2024, was the restructuring of the Registrar General’s Department as a means of removing “the perceived blurred lines,” which previously existed between the Registrar General’s Department and Office of the Prime Minister – CAST in relation to the seamless discharge of the services of the Registrar General’s Department in the Tobago office.

But he said given its constraints, the Tobago sub-office was functioning well and had carried out more than 13,800 certifications between January and November 2024.

Armour: Tobago office still has full capability

“Notwithstanding all of the work that is being done, however – and it is part of the reason why I am here to engage with the stakeholders – we acknowledge reports of the stakeholders being turned away and being misinformed that there are specific services that they are now to go to Trinidad to access and or to transact.”

Armour said that came as a surprise to the government, “since there has been absolutely no instruction issued by the Registrar General to this effect. So for any employee of the Tobago sub office to misguide the public in that manner is inconsistent with policy and any directive.”

He added, “I want to reiterate that the Tobago office has the full functional capabilities that they have always had, which is consistent with the capabilities of all other Registrar General offices.”

However, Armour acknowledged that some of these services were “not being delivered in alignment with our expectations and at a standard that the people of Tobago deserve.”

Armour said, “As Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, I stand here today to apologise to the people of Tobago and undertake by my very presence here today, at the meeting that I had this morning (December 11), and being in Tobago for this media conference, to continue to engage in ensuring the build-out of the capacity of the Registrar General’s Department in its delivery of services to the people of Tobago.

“Regrettably, we have uncovered some credibility in reports of a poor service experience for a number of persons that have been seeking to access services from the Tobago office.”

He said investigations so far have identified that a number of deeds, will duties and bills of sale, totalling over 50 documents, have not been processed for submission over the last two months.

“These have since been addressed and it has narrowed down to the actions of one or two employees. With investigations continuing, and with the requisite action to be taken. I can say no more at this point.”

SOME PLANS GOING FORWARD

• Setting up a Tobago help desk with a designated hotline and e-mail address to provide a channel for the public of Tobago to report difficulties and to have access for prompt and urgent resolution. The contact information for the help desk and hotline will be published to treat with those anomalies.

• Hiring more staff for the Tobago sub-office to improve the standard and reliability of services to the people of Tobago.

• Deploying an acting deputy registrar temporarily at the Tobago sub-office until the Judicial and Legal Services Commission appoints an assistant registrar general for Tobago. The deputy registrar general will be at the Tobago office four days weekly – from Monday-Thursday – and an assistant registrar will be present each Friday. This arrangement began on December 9.

• Hiring an office manager.