Accra, July 8, GNA - The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development on Wednesday tasked Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to register and take control of all burial grounds, be they public or private.
The move is to ensure that all deaths occurring in the country are registered to avoid indiscriminate internment of human bodies which pose serious environmental and health implications to the living. In an address to launch the new Computerized Births and Deaths System in Accra, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said the non-registration of deaths had contributed to the loss of information on deaths.
This, he said, led to many "ghost" names in many official documents such as electoral rolls and payrolls among others in the country. The new Computerized System, designed by the Registry of Births and Deaths, is to allow for easy accessibility of births and deaths records and also to ensure security and safety of such records, to prevent and detect fraudulence associated with such certificates. It is also to halt the use of fraudulent documents to obtain travel and other identification documents.
Mr Afriyie Ankrah also announced that plans were underway to relocate the Registry to a structure befitting its status. He said government was committed to revamping and strengthening the Registry to ensure that it delivered on its mandate to generate timely and reliable statistical data about the country's population to facilitate development planning.
The Deputy Minister said effective births and deaths registration system was elementary to effective operation of polity in the new era of local self-governance adding that it helped government to determine important basic concerns such as doses of immunization vaccine, educational and other child care facilities. He called on all to attach importance to the registration of births and deaths saying this was the only way to acknowledge their existence and identity as Ghanaians.
Mr Stephen Kwaku Amoah, Registrar of the Births and Deaths Registry, said the new Computerized System was only available in Accra but added that the Registry was working to establish the facility in all regional capitals. He thanked AENEAS, UNICEF, the Canadian Embassy and PLAN Ghana for their sponsorship and support of the project.
