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General News of Thursday, March 28, 2019
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2019-03-28
play the videoGhanaian Birth Certificate
The unbridled rot of some birth and death registrars has led foreigners to acquire Ghanaian pbadports.
Go to one of the registry offices for births and deaths and you will discover how easy it is for a foreigner or non-Ghanaian to obtain a Ghanaian birth certificate.
With only a few Ghanaian cedis, a Cameroonian, a Togolese or a Nigerian can become a Ghanaian on paper. In fact, you need less than 150 Cedis to be Ghanaian.
Unfortunately, Ghanaian citizens, who choose to use the appropriate procedure, are having a nightmare to obtain a birth certificate.
Unfortunately, these unapproved fees are in private pockets.
The pbadport office in Accra is one of the foreign centers that acquire Ghanaian birth certificates to secure travel documents.
There is the story of an Ivorian woman who was arrested for using a fake birth certificate to apply for a pbadport.
Wearing a mauve tie and a high complexion on a pair of jeans, she took her face between her palms and cried. Diana Dienahou is her Ivorian name but she used Diana Appiah to apply for a Ghanaian pbadport.
Her accomplice was a Ghanaian who helped her get the birth certificate.
This is a tall young man dressed in a white t-shirt and khaki brown pants. He took only 100 cedis or 20 US dollars to grant Diana Ghanaian citizenship.
A senior pbadport official told officials at Joy News Kwetey Nartey's pbadport office that they were receiving falsified birth certificates from Ghana from foreign nationals wishing to obtain a pbadport. These non-Ghanaians falsify the name of their mother or father.
"Fortunately, careful examination of the documents submitted and the profiling of pbadport applicants in this office revealed this wrongful act," said a senior official at the Pbadport Office.
What is a birth certificate?
A birth certificate is the basic document that an individual can present to badert his right to citizenship.
According to UNICEF, without a birth certificate, no individual exists officially and therefore does not have the legal right to access the privileges and protections of a nation.
This means that if foreign nationals have Ghanaian birth certificates in their possession, this gives them permission to access the health, education and social services available to citizens.
Who are these people who help foreigners in the registry to acquire Ghanaian birth certificates? This remains a mystery even for pbadport office officials although they daily arrest a number of these aliens.
Joy News' investigative reporter, Kwetey Nartey, began her research from the main registry of births and deaths in ministries. He met a registry staff member who identified himself only as Charles. I caught up with him while he was helping a Nigerian get a birth certificate. He charged 100 cedis 100
But birth is registered free of charge. However, it is late check-in which incurs a processing and penalty fee of 50 Cedis. Those who want to do a search pay 5 Cedis.
Reality
I met Charles, a tall young man dressed in a purple short-sleeved shirt and laden with 100 cedis for what he calls a framesearch.
He has billed me 150 additional cedis for a new birth certificate, adding that he depends on his network in other district offices, such as Ledzokuku's, to do the work. In fact, it charges 200% more than what the registry office officially charges.
Another staff member who calls Emma asks for 80 cedis for birth certificates in cases where applicants are born in other regions.
No receipts covered these unapproved charges despite persistent requests.
But how widespread is the practice of charging unapproved fees to birth and death registries?
For answers, Joy News Kwetey Nartey went to the Central Regional Registry with a birth certificate with a misspelled name. The goal was to know how much I would be charged to have the right name on paper.
The registrar of the Regional Register of Births and Deaths said that it would cost 120 Cedis. However, it was said that the same birth certificate would attract 80 cedis for the name change. It was in Cape Coast. In Winneba, the same service was 150 cedis if one wanted to do it quickly.
The official said that they were using the difference for transportation. The officer in charge who seems to be in his thirties had initially agreed to take 50 cedis if I wanted to follow the proper procedure.
The birth and death register of Koforidua contained another story.
In Koforidua, the investigation team was asked to pay 50 cedis after swearing an affidavit. It was not different when they sent the same birth certificate to the 37th Military Hospital for correction. The team was charged with 50 cedis and asked to swear an affidavit.
This legal obligation was lifted during investigations in the central region.
The register of births and deaths of Adabraka Polyclinic had another story. A manager who called Dennis charged 150 cedis for it to be done in a week. Kwetey Nartey, who led the investigations, paid a deposit of 50 Cedis. He did not receive a receipt for this although it is the standard procedure.
Charging unapproved charges is not the only case of wrongdoing in the register of births and deaths.
The 2016 report of the Auditor General indicated that the registrar of the birth and death registry in Suhum was charging an unapproved fee.
"We found that the Registrar of Births and Deaths would charge GH ¢ 50.00 for a birth certificate to 575 clients instead of the approved GH ¢ 20.00 fee.
"The revenue collector, however, paid 11,500 GH ¢ to cover all services rendered to 575 customers. The difference of 17,250.00 GH ¢ n was not recorded.
The lack of public knowledge about the conditions for obtaining a birth certificate and the fees to be paid have been taken into account, "says the report.
In another case, the same report revealed that Wa's Registrar of Births and Deaths, Francis Kupo, had embezzled more than 220,000 public funds in his private account.
"A review of the Registry's records revealed that the Registry did not pay a total income of GH ¢ 224,760.00 into the approved bank account.
On January 25, 2015, Plan Ghana, an NGO, released the amount for the registration of 10,000 births of children in the disadvantaged districts of the Upper West region. The clerk, Mr. Francis Kupo, has not issued an official receipt for the fees, but rather has transferred the amount into a private fund of the National Bank of Investment, Wa, according to the report.
It was not everything.
The Auditor General found that Sekondi's birth and death records had transferred more than 175,000 cedis into an HFC bank account.
"Our review of product statements and bank statements revealed that a total revenue of GH ¢ 175,860.00 collected by the registry between March 16, 2016 and September 1, 2016 had been paid to HFC Bank Limited, Takoradi .
"However, management was unable to provide any evidence to support the transfer of this amount into the consolidated fund's bank account.
"A tax collector at the Birth and Death Register of Akim Oda also collected more than 12,000 cedis for the issuance of birth certificates and death without a receipt. The total cash recoveries would have been sent to the Clerk of the Koforidua Regional Office for the purpose of issuing Treasury Receipts.
"However, no receipt from the Treasury has been produced to acknowledge receipt of the alleged payments to the Regional Registrar," the report says.
The 2004 Financial Administration Regulation requires all heads of government institutions that generate revenue to collect approved fees for services rendered.
Official response from the register of births and deaths?
This is false, according to the Registrar of the Register of Births and Deaths, Rev. Kingsley Addo.
The prescribed fee for late registration and correction of names is 50 Cedis. The Registrar says that anyone who charges beyond these charges violates the standard procedure.
Some workers have been sanctioned, suspended and their promotions organized because of such practices. The clerk stated that these measures were taken to have a deterrent effect.
Meanwhile, the registrar of death and death, Reverend Kingsley Addo, is implementing a number of steps to address this problem.
However, people familiar with this threat have suggested that candidates be selected and interviewed as ways to end the threat.
The clock continues to turn, with foreigners acquiring Ghanaian birth certificates.
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