By Vanessa Braithwaite
A PASSPORT office will be officially launched by Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix, in Linden today. It will process requests for renewal or replacement of lost, damaged, or filled passports.The launch is a part of that Ministry’s efforts to decentralize the services offered in Georgetown to all regions in Guyana. The subject minister made the first announcement of this development at the ‘Meet the Public’ initiative in July, and he consolidated this development by his visit last week to the mining town.

“This (development) is for two purposes: we realize the need to bring government services in the region, and we need to reduce the unnecessary crowds that we have at the passport office at Georgetown,” Minister Felix had said at the ‘Meet the Public’ initiative.

The Minister took the opportunity to sensitize Lindeners, as well as meet with the staff of the National Insurance Scheme where the passport office will be located.

“This initiative has its genesis in His Excellency’s [President David Granger’s] concept of providing government services in the towns. It is his view that government services should be delivered in the townships created, thereby avoiding unnecessary travel to Georgetown to conduct simple business with a government agency. It is in this regard that the Department of Citizenship has taken the initiative a stage further,” Minister Felix explained.

The services will allow for residents of Region 10 to go about the renewal or replacement of lost, damaged or filled passports every Wednesday and Thursday, and they can uplift the document the following Thursday.

First-time applicants will, however, still have to travel to Georgetown to process their application. This is as a result of the unavailability of the machinery used to produce first-time machine-readable passports.

This situation will only be temporary, however, as the NIS location is also temporary; but after the Ministry has secured a permanent location, first-time applicants will be able to utilize the services in Linden.

Assistant National Director of Community Development Councils, Ms. Sandra Adams, who is also a Lindener, expressed gratitude to Minister Felix for bringing the services to the mining town, as it would alleviate the hassle to travel to Georgetown.

“There are a lot of seniors in Linden who cannot make it to Georgetown, and I have received a lot of complaints recently, that by time they get to Georgetown, the numbers are finished and they have to return without getting their passports. So we are happy for this service to begin,” she said.

DECENTRALIZATION
Following implementation of this service in Region Ten, decentralizing of passport application services will expand to other areas, including Mabaruma in the Waini Region (Region One); Anna Regina in Pomeroon-Supenaam (Region Two); New Amsterdam and Corriverton in East Berbice-Corentyne Region (Region Six); Bartica in Cuyuni–Mazaruni (Region Seven); Mahdia in Potaro-Siparuni (Region Eight), and Lethem in Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo (Region Nine).