The Craze to seek greener pastures abroad or join the military has led to hundreds of Ghanaians keeping wake at the head office of the Births and Deaths Registry in Accra to acquire birth certificates.
The scene last Friday was that of chaos as many applicants were spotted in queue as late as 6:48pm when officially the registry had closed.
In an interview with some of the applicants, they noted that they needed the birth certificates to apply for passports to travel outside the country to seek jobs. Others also noted that they needed the certificates to add to their Curriculum Vitae to apply for enrollment into the military where the deadline was Monday October 20, 2014.
It is known that most Ghanaians do not bother about birth certificates unless they are in dire need of them for travel, educational, job and other purposes, hence, the surprise in the mad rush for the certificates in recent times.
The paper gathered that the pressure from all the nine regions is enormous. Officials confirmed that all documents concerning births and deaths have been forwarded to the national headquarters for the right signatories; hence, the delay which makes some spend almost a week before being issued with the certificate.
The delay and long queues were also blamed on the fact that the seal for the birth certificate is one for all the ten regions and is done only in Accra.
The system the paper further gathered has created room for unscrupulous, corrupt agents to extort money from applicants in the name of helping them secure the certificate on time.
According to Frank Tuffuor Yeboah who spoke to the paper, he travelled all the way from Nkoranza to chase the document because he needed the birth certificate to facilitate his travel abroad and had spent three days in Accra.
As late as 6:48pm on Friday, hundreds of people mainly youth were seen struggling at the offices of the births and deaths registry to get their birth certificates.
Some of those in the queue who spoke to the paper alleged that they paid as much as GH� 200.00, while others also paid GH�300.00 to some officials for the express service.
A senior staff of the registry speaking on condition of anonymity said until the outfit decentralizes the issuing of the births and deaths certificates completely; the tension at the head office will not subside, but rather it will escalate every year.
He said, the regional heads must be given the powers to handle fully applications from their region to ease the pressure being exerted on the national head office and kill the corrupt practices being perpetrated by some agents which is marring the system and the image of the Births and Deaths registry.
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