Government’s Continuous neglect of the Birth and Deaths Registry in Ghana is crippling the effective operations of the department which is under the Local Government Ministry.
The Daily Heritage can confirm that the Births and Deaths registry in most parts of the country are faced with inadequate staff, lack of logistics such as computers, records, books, cars and motorbikes and other tools for the limited staff coupled with discouraging remuneration for staff which is seriously affecting the department to live up to its core mandate.
The department has no office for some of the staff members. The registry depends on volunteers for date collection.
The Births and Deaths Registry was established by Act 301 of 1965 as a department under the Local Government Ministry to provide accurate, reliable and timely information on all births and deaths in Ghana for effective socio-economic development.
The function of the Registry is to among others legalize registered births and deaths, as well at store and manage birth and death records in the country.
However, the births and Deaths Registry has failed to perform satisfactorily its core mandate due to neglect by successive governments despite the importance of the department.
In the Eastern Region, the Births and Deaths Registry is in extreme difficulty, hence, despite efforts by the limited staff, it has become difficult to compile and keep accurate and relevant death records.
The regional registry depends on volunteers in most districts such as Affram Plaines North and South, Atiwa, Ayensuano and Akyemansa for data collection.
The Eastern Regional Director of Births and Deaths Registry, Mr. Foster Omane explained that the Ghana Health Service has been supportive by furnishing the department; however, collection of data on deaths and births has been extremely difficult due to the challenges of the department and non-corporation of the public.
Mr. Omane stated that it is against the laws of the land to bury a dead person without registering at the Births and Deaths registry. He explained that such offenders are liable for prosecution.
In 2015, the Easter regional office of the Births and Deaths registry recorded 7,650 registered deaths out of which 4,024 were males while 3,626 were females. The registry hopes to improve its efficiency with the needed support from government and other well wishers.
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