Port Kaituma outreach a success for Citizenship Department

DPI, Guyana, Friday, September 20, 2019

The government outreach in Port Kaituma, Barima-Waini saw many residents in the community and from surrounding villages in the Matarkai sub-region benefitting from the services of Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Citizenship.

The department’s booth was one that was busy as hundreds flocked to access their services.

Minister of Citizenship, Hon. Winston Felix, in an invited comment, told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that his department has been working tirelessly to meet the needs of the people across the country.

“We have been taking government services in the form of passport services, birth certificate and citizenship issues and have been doing so quite some time now,” he said.

Minister Felix explained that while the department is responsible for issuing passports, birth certificates and granting citizenship to foreign nationals, the outreach focused on the latter two.

“We brought from Georgetown, over 200 birth certificates of which we distributed over 50 and the others will be distributed to the community as the days go by,” the Citizenship Minister explained.

According to the minister, the department received five applications for citizenship; two for naturalisation, one for registration by decent, and two for residency status.

Minister Felix deemed the event a success as the staff manning the booth were able to provide services to several persons without delay. He noted that some persons were able to receive their birth certificates for the first time as issues regarding their certificates were resolved right there.

“The initiative by the government to reach the people is a very useful one,” he remarked.

Residents said the government outreach provided an opportunity for them to uplift their documents without having to travel to the capital city.