By Jainaba Kargbo
The Births and Deaths Registry unit under the Directorate of Planning and Information and the Project Coordination Unit of The Ministry of Health recently held a press briefing on the nation-wide implementation of the Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistic & National Health Insurance Scheme (eCRVE& NHIS) at the Central Medical Store in Koto.
Mr Lamin Fatty, the registrar of births and deaths at the Ministry of Health has revealed that five of the Ministry’s registrars have been dismissed from duty for not complying with the registration protocols
He said the protocol promotes confidentiality on people’s personal data; that the data must not be shared or accessed by a third party and that one cannot register someone that is not present at the registration centre.
He affirmed that some of their workers have been caught violating these protocols and that they took that action to send warnings to their fellows in order to prevent corrupt acts.
He assured that they would continue monitoring their workers for any default act and would make sure anyone found wanting faces the consequences.
Mr. Fatty said despite the challenges they faced on the ground, they have issued 162,527 people with the electronic birth certificates and 21,466 pending certificates due to incomplete provision of documentation.
He sought the indulgence and cooperation of the public by providing right documents to make their work easy and fast.
These documents are birth certificate, Alkalo’s attestation, national identification card and driver’s licence accompanied by a parent’s supporting document if one is less than 50 years.
He reminded the public to be aware that editing of approved certificate will not be done on the ground rather after the entire mass registration.
He further said that the team would be reaching rural Gambia till September 30th starting from Foni.
Mr. Fatty also said that the mass registration will end in October, which will be followed by the deployment of teams in various public hospitals of the country.
The Director of Health Promotion and Education, Mr. Modou Njai mentioned the challenges they faced in the implementation of the project. He said the Ministry of Health is aware of officials claiming that the sum of D500.00 up to D1000 will be charged for one to obtain the new e-birth certificate after the conclusion of the mass registration .
According to Director Njai , starting on Monday 5th to 10th the teams will be moving to Foni Bintang, Berefet, , Bondali, kansala and Foni Jarrol districts that will be a period of 4 to 5 days and then they will come back to Kombo and will be attached to health facilities at the public hospital for registration.
“In this case people will take their time and will have access to the e-Birth certificate and national insurance free of charge,” Njai said.
Finally, Director Njai urged the alkalolu in Foni to cooperate with team members to ensure everyone is registered.
