Govt eliminating identity theft in TT

Speaking at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Kangaloo announced that her ministry will be issuing computer-generated death certificates to citizens before December 31 and hinted that the documents will have strict security features similar to those for computer-generated birth certificates, which were launched in 2003.

Disclosing that 76,500 citizens have received free computer-generated birth certificates from 2003 to 2005, Kangaloo said the ministry has now embarked on phase two of this initiative where the nation’s adult population "will now be entitled to one free computer-generated birth certificate."

Noting that the first phase of this initiative involved computer-generated birth certificates for persons born between 1984 and 2003, the minister reminded journalists that citizens would have had to wait ten working days between ordering and receiving their birth certificate.

She said this is no longer the case as the ministry now offers "a same day service for computer-generated birth certificates." Kangaloo pointed out that the birth certificates have "unique security features" such as a personal identification number to prevent them from being doctored in any way for nefarious purposes.

The minister also said computer-generated birth certificates can be received between three to five days at sub-offices of the Registrar-General of the ministry in San Fernando, Arima and Tobago.