KINGSTON, Jamaica— Jamaicans at home and abroad can now apply for more documents online as the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) continues to broaden its digital footprint.

As such, people needing an electronic burial order, adoption certificate or those who want to book a wedding may now do so by applying online.

The update was provided on Tuesday by the Minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, Floyd Green, who is in charge of digital transformation. He noted that prior to 2020 customers of the RGD could only apply for the standard birth, death and marriage certificates, as well as genealogy research services online.

“Over the course of the last year, the agency provided customers with the ability to update their records online; correct an error online and in fact do a late entry of name, all online,” Green noted.

“This is not only good for our residents, but this is also for our Diaspora, who can now access these services and are also able to upload documents and make payments and as such conduct whole transactions from the comfort of their homes, anywhere in the world,” said Green.

He said last year there was an increase in online utilisation by 35 per cent.

“We are not stopping, members. We are now moving to procure a new registration software solution that will link birth, marriage, deed poll, and death records for the first time,” he told the House.

The minister also noted that unfortunately, the majority of the RGD records are paper-based.

“The reality is that no matter all the software and the online services we offer, unless we remedy this challenge, we can never truly lead the transformation,” he said.

He said it was for this reason why on Friday, May 6, “we announced a US$4 million (J$612 million) contract to digitise over two million of the RGD records with funding from the NIDS project in the Office of the Prime Minister.

“What this means, is that Fujitsu Caribbean (Jamaica) Limited has been contracted and has already started the work to install the necessary infrastructure at the RGD’s head office to facilitate digitising records created from 1930 to the present,” Green stated. He said digitising paper-based records will yield significant benefits for Jamaicans.

“Persons will obtain service at a much quicker rate, minimising the need to search physical records and enhancing the accuracy of searches.

“There is however another substantial benefit that will come from this digitisation programme. We appreciate that for our digital transformation to take root, for our people to think digital then we have to have People Centred Transformation,” said Green.