During the fiscal year 2002/3, the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) focused on implementing customer service improvement strategies, increasing training efforts for staff, and applying careful management of its financial resources. Throughout this period, the agency worked assiduously to satisfy the needs of all its customers. The RGD is proud to report, an overall performance success rate of ninety one percent (91%) for the financial year 2002/3. This ninety one percent (91%) was as a result of fifty-one (51) favourable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) out of a total of fifty-six (56) KPIs that were applicable as at March 31, 2003.
The financial year 2002/3 began with Sixty (60) KPIs, but a revision of the KPIs resulted in a total of fifty-nine (59). This amendment to the KPIs was done because it was felt that two of the KPIs should be combined to give a better description of the number of complaints that were filed against the Registrar General’s Department. Of the fifty (51) favourable KPIs at year-end, thirty-four (34) were on target, and seventeen (17) surpassed the targets. For the five (5) targets that were not met, one (1) was from the Vital Statistics, Registration and Regional Services Section, two (2) for Island Record Office and one (1) for each of the Marketing and Planning, and Records and Information Management Departments. (In the case of the Marketing and Planning Department, inadequate staff for the first three (3) quarters of the financial year, did not allow for the surpassing of some KPI targets for the period and influenced the one unfavourable KPI. )
During its fourth year of operation as an Executive Agency, the RGD made significant progress in improving the RGD’s management and staff productivity, and customer satisfaction.
As an aid to staff productivity and efficiency an Intranet system was developed by the
Records and Information Management Department in the second quarter of the fiscal year. The Intranet has provided real time communication between employees and is currently available to those persons who are at the management, senior and junior supervisory levels. Plans are in place to extend this facility to the regional offices and clerical levels.
Due to staff shortages a consultant was invited to assist in concluding the vital statistics report for 2001. The report now awaits publication.
The facilitation of electronic transfer of salaries for staff with accounts at the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) and National Commercial Bank (NCB), have allowed these persons the ability to access their accounts from any ATM Island wide; this has provided improved convenience for employees.
RGD’s continuous support to GSAT students preparing to sit exams and applying to secondary institutions has been achieved, through collaboration with the Ministry of Education and other educational institutions. The vision remains to ensure that Birth Certificates are available to each student entering secondary school.
Within the context of the Customer Service Improvement project, the Mobile Unit –East was officially launched on December 2, 2002. The unit has made it possible to for customers at far distances and remote areas to access our service. Since it’s launch, 8,624 applications have been collected.
Tents used to accommodate customers at the Head Office were upgraded to improve customer comfort. Though not the ideal customer accommodation, the tents have provided protection from adverse weather conditions and aided the problem of overcrowding in the currently inadequate indoor customer service foyer.
During the period under review, effort was placed on putting the necessary measures in place for an Application Tracking System (ATS). The ATS will facilitate more meaningful responses to customers’ queries, as it is designed to track applications throughout the production process, and therefore will provide customers with the current status of their applications. The ATS will facilitate the implementing Point of Sale transactions and aspects of Online Registrations.
In the second quarter of the fiscal year, the RGD restructured to reflect the establishment of a Records and Information Management Department (RIM), which is responsible for Information Technology and the employment of effective and efficient records management techniques.
As an outcome the efforts mentioned above, the Agency improved on its customer satisfaction rate, which increased to ninety four percent (94%) as at March 31, 2003, a 3 % increase from its comparative period March 31, 2002. The ninety four percent (94%) represent 255,354 application satisfied from the 272,201 applications received. The agency continues to be concerned however at the over 17,000 applications which have not been satisfied.
Changes were made to the method of reporting customer satisfaction by including all applications received and processed. The applications that were termed satisfied did not have to result in a certificate being produced. Once RGD had taken all the necessary steps to assist the customer in being satisfied and there was no further action required the customer was advised and the file closed. In the fourth quarter the CEO introduced a move to ensure quality control, by which all applications are matched against records at the point of print.
A critical part of satisfying customers has always been listening to and educating them on the services we offer. The RGD continues to conduct outreaches to customers. A total of one thousand and seventy two (1072) -outreach meeting were held during the fiscal year. These were carried out mainly by our Parish Officers and Regional Managers. We must apologise to our stakeholders for a decline in the interaction between us and look forward to an improvement in this area, in the coming year.
The RGD and You aired on eight stations locally, remained a means to communicate information to the public. The CEO and other members of the RGD’s management team also contributed to outreach efforts by delivering presentations, dissemination of information and addressing questions and concerns, on the air and at outreaches. It is estimated that the programme reached approximately 643,200 persons per week during the year under review.
Our approach to customer satisfaction has not been only focussed on keeping the customer pleased, but also pleasing the staff who must delivery service of the highest standard to customers. RGD staff has received regular updates on issues of relevance, this has been done through, staff newsletters and the “Keeping in Touch,” Staff Luncheon and Children’s Treat. Other welfare and staff development efforts include performance evaluations, incentive payment, executive coaching sessions, recognition for long and outstanding service and various training opportunities.
The Island Record Office (IRO) continued to be successful in conducting its primary business, the recording of documents. Reporting a 123% success rate. Other services such as, Deed Poll also saw impressive success, where the target was exceeded. Asset Lien verification did not enjoy similar success and an analysis of the service indicated that there was a need to develop new strategies for offering the service in the coming year. We intend to do so in 2003/2004.
The RGD PSMP Implementation Unit continued to monitor and support implementation of the modernization project. The unit was instrumental in upgrading of the Half Way Tree Road Registration Centre to a Regional Office, seeking accommodation for the Santa Cruz and Montego Bay Offices and assisted evaluating tenders for transportation and security services.
The Internal Audit Unit conducted audit reviews to ensure the integrity of computer generated certificates as well as special investigations into cases of fraudulent certificates. The unit has also continued the monitoring of the agency’s KPI’s and individual performance targets.
The RGD’s achievement of ninety nine per cent (91%) is a commendable performance and would not have been possible, without the hard work and dedication of management and staff throughout the period 2002 to 2003.
The Agency continued to produce timely financial statements, which reflected at year-end operating expenses of J$257, 893, 866.37 which was within the budget of $290,933,385. 99. Effective and careful management strategies were applied to the financial operations of the Agency resulting in an operating surplus of $14.06 million.