A UNILATERAL decision cannot be made to lock out all of Tobago from access to the Registrar General’s database and computer systems.
This according to attorney and head of the Tobago Business Chamber Martin George in a statement on Saturday.
He is also concerned that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Attorney General Reginal Armour are not appalled by the situation.
He called the situation a debacle.
George said, “It cannot be that someone in the upper hierarchy of the Registrar General’s office in Trinidad can take a unilateral decision to lock out all of Tobago from access to the Registrar General’s database and computer systems.”
He said, “This means that simple things such as a birth certificate, a death certificate, these are things you will not be able to get registering a deed, getting certified copies of a deed.
“All of these things are unavailable to Tobagonians and it is certainly a very untenable situation.”
George said, “In fact, quite frankly, one is surprised that the prime minister and attorney general are not appalled at this turn of affairs because it seems that someone has taken these things on their own and decided to invoke their own decisions and solutions, rather than working with what are the established procedures and policy within both the Public Service Act and the Judicial Legal Services Regulations.”
He said if somebody was doing something wrong there were disciplinary procedures and established guidelines either under the Public Service Commission Regulations or the Judicial and Legal Service Commission Regulations.
George said, “You cannot unilaterally decide that you are locking out the entire island of Tobago from access to these services, simply because you have an internecine warfare going on between yourself and an officer from Tobago, that’s not the way things are handled at all.”
He said it will be tantamount to a scenario where the San Fernando and the entire southern area of Trinidad was locked out from access to the Registrar General Database in Port of Spain.
He said, “It’s as if, you cannot get in San Fernando a death certificate, a birth certificate, a deed registered, everybody would be in uproar if that were the case. That’s why one is surprise that there is not more outcry, as to this type of action being taken, this is certainly not the way that you resolve issues and it is certainly not the way that you solve problems, especially when they are established procedures within both the Public Service Commission and the Judicial Legal Services Commission for doing so.”
George said, “We of the Tobago Business Chamber, and speaking for myself as an attorney at law, and as a member of the Law Association and as a member of the Tobago Lawyers Association, I had a conversation with the President of the Tobago Lawyers Association this morning and it is really a situation that needs immediate attention and rectification.”
He said, “If it is, that there is to be some investigation which leads to charges maybe of misbehaviour in public office, then we say, let the chips fall where they may, but deal with this expeditiously and this situation ought to be resolved within the next few days. We look forward to it being resolved fully and completely by the end of next week.”
