RESIDENTS of Portmore in St Catherine no longer need to travel to Spanish Town to process documents such as birth and death certificates, marriage licences and deed polls, now that the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) has opened a regional office in the municipality.

The branch, located at the Portmore Pines Plaza, has been doing business since July 1, but was officially opened Thursday night by the health minister, Horace Dalley.

The office has already served 5,000 customers.

Speaking at the official launch, Portmore Mayor George Lee said he hoped that the opening of the RGD office would become a stepping stone for the introduction of other government agencies in the fast-growing community, particularly a tax office.

“I see it as a recognition by the government that Portmore desperately needs better service facilities. and it is disappointing that Portmore has not yet had a tax office, and I hope that that will be the next office to come here,” Lee later told the Observer.

The mayor has also asked the government to consider an office of the labour ministry in Portmore.

Guest speaker at the opening, Professor Verene Shepherd lauded the efforts made to have an office of the RGD in Portmore.

“Gone are the days when the entire island had to be subjected to a sort of middle passage reincarnation in the effort to get their important documents,” she said.

Shepherd, at the same time, lamented the fact that birth certificates have been providing more information about mothers rather than fathers, and urged that steps be taken to rectify this situation.

“I think that all fathers whose information are not on the birth certificates of their children should be ordered to go back and fill them out, to create some impact on that child’s identity,” she suggested.

The Portmore RGD office also received full endorsements from Fitz Jackson, member of parliament for St Catherine South and Senator Paul Robertson, member of parliament for St Catherine South Eastern.