MINISTER of Citizenship Winston Felix is moving towards the implementation of electronic registration of births for Guyanese as well as the upgrade of current laws and policies under citizenship.He was at the time speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Friday at his temporary office on Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown, and he also outlined the goals and objectives of the newly-formed ministry.

Minister Felix explained that one of the main objectives of the ministry is to establish a long-term system of birth registration, immigration and naturalisation of Guyanese to tie in with Guyana’s laws and policies.

He added that the move is to pave the way for the removal of the former ‘one-man’ decision-making system regarding who gets citizenship, and it is also intended to manage the data of citizens from birth to death in a simpler fashion.

Felix said it is a principal issue and different bodies will be put in place, in which the ministry will see that once a person is born there is some identity and number that should follow that person through their NIS, TIN, passport, driver’s licence, etc.

He said, “In other words that number is accepted anywhere once your information is there, to rid Guyana of the long drawn out process – with technology we can do it, to computerise our information which will be protected from inside or outside interference or hacking.”

Felix stated that they want to ensure that once there is a birth whether in the city or in the far-flung hinterland locations, there must be some system to register the birth so that the person is known to the ministry by a number and down the road they can get a birth certificate.

He said, “Once these details are in and you are known by a number, a date of birth, place of birth or mother’s name at least the records can bring you up 50 years down the road because of an electronic birth record.
The current system I have no serious criticisms with it although it is ‘old-timish’ and too labour intensive and I would want to see electronic records introduced.

He also noted that he wants to concentrate on de-centralising the system to serve the public on immigration and birth registration matters in a hassle-free way.

Citizenship
Felix pointed out that they have not gone to work yet but will establish the objectives and one key one is the harmonisation of the laws and procedures to simplify the process.

He said that the laws must be so worded that there will be no doubt as to what is required to become a citizen of Guyana. The minister added that the system will be so designed as to allow the ministry to deal with everything for citizens from birth to death.

Felix said, “For instance there are several people who want NIS or claiming for benefits and do not know where to turn, issues faced by citizens. They will be guided as to what to do to get what they want in our ministry, we are geared towards a citizen-friendly system.”

He told this publication that the recently formulated Ministry of Citizenship derives its entire role and functions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) since that ministry dealt with births and deaths, and immigration matters in terms of extension of stay, grants of stay in the country and other immigration-related matters of citizenship.

Felix said that they have heard stories before the 2011-2015 elections about the granting of citizenship under dubious means and “when you look at the law you see unfettered discretionary power given to ‘one man’ under the former administration and as such a number of things can arise.

He said, “You can have allegations of the misuse of discretionary power and that is what we have heard about …when you examine the law it doesn’t give leadership on a set of criteria of which it (citizenship) should be granted. It is just left to the minister’s discretion. We have to re-examine how we arise at leadership in Guyana and come up with a set of laws which would make it clear as to what criteria obtains before citizenship is granted.” (Michel Outridge)