THE REGISTRAR General's Department (RGD) has announced a major hike in its fees effective November 17 in a move designed to earn the agency an additional $44 million to meet its expenses during the current financial year.The increases will range from 25 per cent to as high as 250 per cent.
The new fees for birth, deaths and marriage certificates where the entry number is supplied with the application is $650, an increase of 86 per cent. Where the application is submitted without an entry number, the new fee is $750, representing a $300 in-crease, with the fee of each additional copy now being $100, an increase of 250 per cent.
"In setting its fee structure, the RGD needs to ensure that it will be able to fund the major capital investment programmes and operational expenditure, especially as it relates to data conversion of all our records," Dr. Patricia Holness, chief executive officer of the RGD, said during a press briefing at the Courtleigh Hotel, New Kingston yesterday.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION,
"To achieve significant increase in the level of customer satisfaction, it is necessary to cover costs through the adjustment of fees. The RGD requires the financial capability to implement the activities outlined and ultimately increase customer service standards and the level of customer satisfaction," Dr. Holness said.
The provision of a certificate of no impediment has been increased by 25 per cent to $5,000, and will now be supplied on security paper. The certificate of no impediment, which indicates that an individual was never married, is required by many countries and foreign employers for immigration purposes or employment and pension benefits.
The late entry of name and correction of error activities each have a new fee of $2,000, an increase of 100 per cent.
"Customers can avoid this cost by complying with the Registration Act. Where error occurs on the part of the local district registrars, there is no charge to the customer," Dr. Holness said.
The fee for late registration (when the child was never registered) is now $3,000, an increase of 200 per cent.
"This cost is avoidable as the Registration Act requires that a birth be registered within 12 months of the event," Dr. Holness said.
SHORTFALL
The agency, which had income budgeted at $498.7 million for the current financial year, had only generated $153.6 million for the period April to September 2003, a shortfall of almost $96 million.
"We are running at a deficit, we should have implemented the increases in April but we really couldn't have waited any longer (to increase fees). We tried everything increased volumes, productivity gains but nothing was working, and even with the increases, we will still be in the red," Dr. Holness said.
Even as the agency hikes its fees, it has moved to phase two of its customer service improvement project. One of the milestones of phase two has been the development of the customer application tracking system which the RGD began using in April 2003.
The agency has formulated new strategies to tackle the residual three per cent of unsatisfied customers.
