PLEASE permit me space to bring to the attention to the Guyanese Public what is happening in the Office of the Registrar General with reference to the functions of that department.
The Registrar is endowed with the authority to perform civil marriages. This means that the parties who want to be married can go to the office of the Registrar General and lodge a petition form along documents that are necessary to complete a marriage.
What has been happening for nearly two years is that the Registrar General has not been performing marriages where one party to a marriage is from Canada or the USA. Her office requests that Persons apply for a marriage Licence so that a Marriage Officer can solemnise the marriage.
This practice is quite contrary to the Marriage Act. Marriage Officers are mostly appointed from religious organisations. Therefore they are to perform ceremonial marriages. Now it is wrong in law to ask the Marriage Officers to do civil marriages. This is what has been happening for nearly two years. I say the marriages are civil because very often persons getting married do not want a ceremonial marriage.
Let me also say that it is public knowledge that an application for a Marriage, Birth or Death Certificate can take weeks before the document can be delivered. Some are not delivered at all. It is for this reason that many are willing to pay thousands of dollars to uplift desired documents in a matter of hours. Sir you may be surprised to learn that people who are migrating can produce Birth Certificates to prove that a child is below a certain age when in fact that child was born two or three years before the date that is stated on the Certificate. Sir many marriages have been solemnized and Marriage Certificated issued. However on reapplying for copies of Marriage Certificates persons are told that there is no record of such marriages.
The Registrar General must inform the Public on the following (1) Why she is not performing marriages when one party to the marriage is from Canada or the USA. (2)  If there are amendments to the Marriage Act which now allow Marriage Officers to perform Civil Marriages. (3) How can parties be sent to a Marriage Officer when they do not desire a ceremonial marriage. (4) What security system is in place to safeguard the records?
It is my hope that some answers will be forthcoming so that the public can be wiser on issues of the above mentioned topics.