THERE were many flaws with birth certificates which were procured by the David Granger-led A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration, with many of them still unaccounted for.

This was revealed by Registrar General, Raymon Cummings, in an interview with the National Communications Network (NCN), where he stated that, while there was excess, there are issues with accounting for these certificates procured in bulk under the previous government.

Cummings told NCN that many of the flaws included issues with the security along with being able to trust the information written on the certificates.

He said, “There was a lot of excess certificates printed. When we checked back to see what was delivered and so on, there was excess and there were some issues of accounting for all the copies that should have been printed.”

These certificates, he added, even when printed by national printers are affixed with serial numbers to be able to trace them. However, issues arose with determining where the certificates were and whose names were documented on them.

In early November, a special investigation was launched into the purchase of 100,000 birth certificates by the Ministry of the Presidency under the last government, according to the 2021 Auditor General’s Report.

These certificates were purchased for the sum of $288.098 million under the APNU+AFC coalition government. Included in this amount was the sum of some $18.599 million which represented full payments on two contracts for the procurement of 100,000 birth certificates.

The AG’s report noted that the contracts were awarded by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) through the single-source method of procurement.