NEW BIRTH CERTIFICATES SOON ...To check fraud (PAGE 50)

THE Births and Deaths Registry will soon introduce new birth certificates, embedded with security features as part of efforts to fight fraud in the acquisition of the certificates.
The new certificates, which will have features such as water mark, invisible fibres and hologram seal, is expected to discourage multiple registration and acquisition of certain legal documents.
The Registrar of Births and Deaths, Mr Stephen Amoah, who disclosed this at a training workshop for staff of the registry at Bunso on Saturday, said the new certificates formed part of the computerisation system initiated by the registry to ensure prompt and efficient delivery of service to the public.
The one-week workshop brought together the 339 staff of the registry across the country to learn the new computerisation system, standard operating procedures and how to gather, store, process and access captured data to ensure efficient and effective delivery of services.
The event, which was also used to equip the staff on how to detect document fraud to prevent duplication, was organised by the registry, with sponsorship from the Government of Ghana and the European Union.
Mr Amoah said in spite of the measures being put in place by the registry to curb faking of birth certificates over the years, some fraudsters used various means to acquire forged birth certificates.
This practice, he noted, had enabled some non-Ghanaians and other unscrupulous individuals to obtain travelling documents and other legal Ghanaian documents to assume false identities.
“Being a global issue, faking of birth certificates has given some fraudsters and individuals the opportunity to perpetrate criminal acts such as armed robbery, terrorism and money laundering,” he said.
Such a situation, he noted, had increasingly been aggravated by a lack of technology, which had made it difficult to track down the fraudsters.
To curb such practice, he said the registry had been liaising with the various foreign embassies within and outside the country to detect the submission of fake birth certificates by fraudsters for travelling documents.
For his part, the Senior Assistant Registrar, Mr Kingsley Asare Addo, said the Births and Deaths Registry was making every effort to provide reliable, timely and accurate population data, which could be used to enhance policy formulation and development in the country.
This, he said, would help to provide quality services to the citizenry and ensure proper planning and development across the country.