Extortion at Birth & Death

Investigations at the headquarters of Births and Deaths Registry in Accra revealed that the office has been turned into a graft arena where extreme bribery and corruption have become the order of the day.

Workers of that apparently innocuous state institution, Today Newspaper investigations have revealed, are ripping off unsuspecting Ghanaians, who go there, especially to acquire Birth Certificates.

Officially, an applicant applying for a Birth Certificate is supposed to pay between GH¢10.00-GH¢15.00.
And the processing of the document is officially slated not to last more than two weeks. But the processing actually takes two months or more, and even then one has to understand the “language” of the place and “do something” if he or she wants it quicker.

To further buttress the fact that corruption is widespread at the Births and Deaths Registry, Today through its investigative team, managed to discover how the workers carry out their furtive deals at the expense of Ghanaians and the nation.

The team discovered how craftily the workers extort monies from unsuspecting and desperate Ghanaians.

And sources disclosed to our team of investigators that this year, due to the harsher economic situation, these shady activities have taken a sharp turn for the worse.

The situation as of now is that officials of the Births and Deaths Registry are charging GH¢30.00 and more for a single Birth Certificate.

And the strange but obvious fact is that the workers adamantly refuse to give any applicant a receipt because of their nefarious and dubious deals.

A victim of these activities, Madam Akua Adutwumwaah, spoke to Today. She said: “When I questioned the officer why she was charging me GH¢30.00, the only explanation she gave was that things have changed… And when I asked for a receipt she could not provide one, neither was she able to give me any tangible reason why.”

Our investigations revealed, rather shockingly, that in extreme cases, applicants are charged as high as GH¢50.00-GH¢70.00 for a Birth Certificate.

The development, the paper gathered, has raised – on the premises of the institution – Goro Boys – self-styled middlemen – who work 24×5 at the Births and Deaths Registry.

And our sources disclosed that these Goro Boys are the partners in crime with unscrupulous officials to extort monies from desperate Ghanaians in need of Birth Certificates for either a family relative or a friend.
Worst of all, this paper also found, there was total breakdown of standard procedures at the Births and Deaths Registry.

There was no strict standard procedure where applicants could follow and expect officials too to follow. The entire procedure at the institution appeared to be in a mess.

In some offices our investigators found out that there were no officers to attend to customers thereby compounding the frustrations of many of the people who had gone there to apply for Birth Certificates.
Facts point to the fact that such orchestrated absence-from-offices is one of the ploys officials use to catch the unsuspecting public unawares thereby making victims of them.

That such was their modus operandi became obvious in the statements of persons who have fallen prey to the corruptible practices of officials at the Births and Deaths Registry.

One of such victims, Master Emmanuel Adjei recounted: “They deliberately frustrate you [right from] the very first day you set foot on the premises.

The first thing they tell you is that pay this sum of money, [normally GH¢10.00,] and come next week. And when you come back [in a week’s time…] they frustrate you [again] by telling you that Mr. or Mrs. So and So has not signed his/her portion. [Thereupon] they ask you to pay some more monies for your form to be fast-tracked.”