Dear Editor,
Please permit me space in your newspaper to highlight to the management of the Guyana Post Office Corporation the frustration members of the public experience when they apply for birth and death certificates.First off, when one applies for a birth certificate, it takes three (3) weeks tops to be processed, dispatched and received by the applicant.
However, persons have applied and have never received their birth certificates or relatives’ death certificates.

When you visit the Post Office, they say it’s being processed. Now, what I don’t understand is that persons have applied since November last year, and when they visit, all they keep hearing is that the certificate is being processed.

What is the cause for the delay? It’s not the first time that people are applying for their birth certificate, and there was never previously a problem in getting it.

Further, an emerging trend is that some applicants may feel they should reapply, and they pay the additional fee for how much copies they are requesting; but if they don’t get their birth or death certificates, they are not being refunded their money. What are these people doing with the money they collect from the public, but do not refund when the applicants can’t get their certificates?

I’m therefore calling on the persons in charge to look into why people’s birth certificates are taking such lengthy time to be processed and sent to them. And we all know that you need that document for a passport.

Secondly, why are people not being refunded the money they had paid for certificates not received?

Further, I’m calling on the Minister under which the GPOC falls to look into what’s happening at this place.

Regards,
LYDIA PERSAUD