For Immediate Release

ELECTRONIC RECORDS ACCESS TO BEGIN IN RAGGED ISLAND

The exciting news about the Department of the Registrar General is that tomorrow, Friday, 2nd December, 2005, Minister Alfred Gray, Administrators Everett Hart and Rufus Johnson, the Registrar General and I will travel with others to Ragged Island in the far reaches of the southern Bahamas to commission a new system which will bring access to the records of the Department at the touch of a button to the residents there.  This will be repeated in the coming months from island to island, including next week in Grand Bahama until the entire Bahamas has immediate electronic access to all the records of the Department.  This bold and exciting new step will transform the pace at which business can function everywhere in The Bahamas.

We are addressing our full energies into the implementation of the Prime Minister’s commitment to bring Government to the people.  In January of 2006 we will launch complete electronic access to the records of the Department, with the sole exception of intellectual property searches.

The delivery systems for this cutting-edge service are being beta tested as we speak and the diligence of the staff at the Department and at the government’s Data Processing Unit will ensure a successful launch.  The public should know that the Department of the Registrar General is dedicated to transforming the systems of record keeping and public access and continually updating and refining the state-of the art technology introduced under the PLP administration until the service is second to none. The staff of the Department has embraced the challenge of globalization and now Bahamians anywhere in the Bahamas or, indeed, anywhere in the world can look forward to accessing their records at the touch of a button.

It is unfortunate that FNM Senator John Delaney continues to spread false information in a desperate effort to undermine the hard work of the fine staff of the Department who have made tremendous strides in transforming the way that business is done at the Registry.

Mr. Delaney was quoted in Wednesday 30th November 2005 Tribune as stating “the premises suffered a sewerage back up this summer – one of several in the last two years – which resulted in the area containing corporate files being contaminated by sewerage” This is absolutely false. The facts are that in July of this year, stagnant water from a clogged face-basin in the law firm directly above the Department’s 50 Shirley Street Office escaped onto the floor directly above the Registrar General’s Department and leaked through the ceiling into the office below.  Files were immediately covered in protective plastic and – out of an abundance of caution – staff members were given the option of a short time away while the area was ventilated to remove the unpleasant smell of the stagnant water. There was no sewerage leak.

I went immediately to investigate the matter, to meet with our team and to ensure that every measure was taken to effectively deal with this incident.

This unexpected incident was a small challenge, the like of which is encountered from time to time in daily management.  It restricted the public’s access to the Department for a maximum of a few hours on one day in July, not for any extended period of time as Mr. Delaney would mischievously like to suggest.

Mr. Delaney is clearly more interested in creating scandal than discovering truth. His goal is to score political points and he does not seem to care if he spreads false information about the Department of the Registrar General in order to score these petty political points.

Mr. Delaney was a paid consultant during the previous administration which presided over the near destruction of the financial services sector of The Bahamas.  Now that Mr. Delaney is on the public payroll at the Senate, he must not be allowed to further destroy the financial sector through deliberate misrepresentations in the media.

In modernising the Department of the Registrar General, the Ministry of Financial Services & Investment has already accomplished what the previous administration failed to do in ten years of office.  We are committed to moving forward, not backward.