The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) has taken “grave” exceptions to “all” of the allegations raised in an International Data Management (IDM) report and has called for executives of that company to publicly disclose their vested interest in The Deeds Registry of The Bahamas.
In his response to a story on that report which was printed in The Bahama Journal last week, Registrar General Shane Miller said that claims of it taking a “couple of months of delay” before a bank or purchaser can have a title company or law firm check records, and that transactions are not being properly indexed are “incorrect” and are completely unfounded.
The registrar asserted, “All deeds and documents lodged for recording at the RGD are currently indexed as at January 12, 2006 and the public can presently search these documents for up-to-date records.”
Mr. Miller said that he is proud of what the department has been able to accomplish in a few short months.
Over the last year, the RGD has consulted with members of the private sector and invested substantial sums of monies and resources in establishing its new online registry system, which has taken the quality service to an unprecedented level, he said in a statement.
In addition, the RGD has implemented a 30-day turnaround for all deeds and documents lodged as of June 30, 2005, the statement said.
It added that through a complete re-engineering of previous procedures, today, all deeds and documents submitted for record as of that date are immediately stamped and indexed and available for pick up within 30 days of the day of being lodged or accepted by the Registry.
Deeds and documents lodged for recording prior to June 1, 2005 have been stamped and indexed and can be searched online by the general public, law firms and title companies, and will be available for collection once they have been copied.
“With the ushering in of the new online system for the past eight months, the public as well as law firms and title search companies can perform online searches at their desktop computers at work or at home or from anywhere else in the world they may be located,” the statement said.
“Additionally, the department has four computers available to the public for searching and five microfilm machines are still available to search for records prior to June 30, 2005.”
Likewise, the statement said, the updating of the Global Registry Systems was professionally done and ensures that the integrity of the data was preserved.
“When we changed over from the old database system, we performed full system backups and all data was properly converted,” Mr. Miller said.
“The Bahamian public and local and international businesses can rest assured that the Registrar General’s Department is in full compliance with industry standards and continues to perform daily backups to guarantee the continued integrity of its data.”
The statement said that the new method of recording data at the Registrar General’s Department is scanning. The old process of microfilming was reportedly discontinued in March 2004.
This means that documents submitted between that time and June 30, 2005 have been indexed and systems are being put in place to scan this backlog, the statement added.
Mr. Miller wants the Bahamian public to know that his department continues to take concerns of the public, including the local and international business community, “very seriously”.
“The RGD has undertaken radically new measures and procedures since June 1, 2005 to ensure efficiency and a much faster turnaround of documents from years to 30 days,” the statement said.
“All of this has been accomplished in six short months with plans already in process for further service improvements and time-efficiencies. As registrar, Mr. Miller will shortly be showcasing the efficiencies of the new system through a series of public events when the system will be demonstrated.”
The statement also said that for the past year, the private/public sector advisory committee to Minister of Financial Services and Investments Allyson Maynard-Gibson has been extremely active in driving this process.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
