By Eunice Hilda A. Mensah
Accra, Dec. 14, GNA – All staff of the Births and Deaths Registry at the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, totalling 542, have been officially transferred from the Civil Service to the Local Government Service.
The exercise, officially outdoored in Accra was to decentralise the services of the Registry and take services to the doorstep of the public.
It was also to ensure that the registration of every birth, foetal death and death was done efficiently and effectively.
Ms Marian W. A. Kpakpah, Chief Director, Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD), in a statement delivered on her behalf, said a Steering Committee was set up to decentralise births and deaths registration.
A technical working committee set up on the other hand, also recommended that the Ministry supported by the two Services took up steps to sensitise the staff well on the transformation.
Nana Agyekum Dwamena, the Head of Civil Service, said the exercise was a process to deepen the democratic dispensation and bring services closer to the people while responding quickly to their needs.
Efficient births and deaths registration, he said, was fundamental for good governance, sound planning and planned programmes for citizens participation.
He gave an assurance that the Office of the Head of Civil Service would continue to support the office of the Head of Local Government to successfully go through the transition.
He wished the staff a fruitful career path in their new public sector journey, saying it was just a change in management, staff appraisal processes and working environments.
Mr Dwamena reminded the Head of Local Government Service of the existence of some organisations like the Department of Feeder Roads who were still on the pay roll of the Civil Service, even though they had been transferred to the Local Government Service and admonished them to take quick steps to change the mode of payment as well.
Dr Nana Ato Arthur, the Head of Local Government Service, suggested the importance of taking the staffs through an orientation, to enable them understand all about local government and decentralisation.
“Going forward, all will truly be born where they were born and people will not have the chance to write in their birth cert that they were born in Accra when truly they might have been born somewhere else,” he said.
Madam Henrietta Lamptey, the Registrar of Births and Deaths, expressed optimism that the transfer presented another opportunity to further decentralise the services of the Registry and make it deliver timely on its mandate.
“It is expected that the step promotes an improved, accurate, and timely registration of all births and deaths within 10 days and 12 months respectively,” she said.
She admonished the Offices of the Local and Civil Services to render the needed support to the district and regional offices of the Registry to enable them deliver as expected of them, adding: “We are confident that this great initiative and arrangement will enhance capacity to enable the country attain universal births and deaths registration.”
Mr Dennis Aboagye, Executive Secretary, Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation, advised the Registry to learn from its previous mistakes on transfers, asking management to avoid consequences of wrongful transfers.
Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, Deputy Minister of MLGDRD, said the move was in accordance with the recent amendment of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 2020 (Act 1027), to promote registration nationwide and the decentralisation of the Births and Deaths Registry to improve the collection and collation of statistics.
He said the Registry defined standards and quality control in record keeping, and implored it together with the Services to sensitise the public on the step taken to better serve them.
GNA