Ada West Assembly Members Give Births and Deaths Registry 21 Days to Clear Certificate Backlog.

The Ada West District Assembly has slapped an officer in charge of the local Births and Deaths Registry with a strict 21-day ultimatum to clear a crippling backlog of registration documents. The directive follows a wave of bitter complaints from community representatives revealing that hundreds of frustrated citizens have been left waiting for over two years just to receive basic identity papers. The urgent local administrative showdown boiled over during the legislative body's highly charged Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at the capital city of Sege.

Elected representatives gathered inside the packed Ada West District Assembly Hall to voice the deep administrative grievances of their respective electorates. Assembly Members expressed profound frustration over the prolonged systemic delays, pointing out that the state registry's sluggish output has severely disrupted civil life. The bottleneck at the registry has effectively crippled the ability of local families to easily secure critical identity cards, which are foundational for accessing secondary state apparatuses and legal protections.

Leading the charge against the bureaucratic gridlock, the Assembly Member for the Nakomkope Electoral Area, Hon. Peter Kwame, openly lamented the situation, revealing that dozens of applications have been sitting abandoned at the district registration office for up to 24 months. Kwame emphasized that despite relentless follow-ups by both applicants and community leadership, the files remained completely stagnant. His colleagues quickly backed his claims, presenting a unified front against the failing state registry.

The situation turned even more contentious as several assembly members alleged a deeper financial strain on vulnerable rural households. Multiple representatives reported instances where desperate residents were forced to pay the official registration fees more than once, yet they still walked away empty-handed without their vital certificates. This alleged double-payment trend sparked widespread outrage on the assembly floor, with members labeling it an unfair economic burden on an already struggling populace.

Legislators sternly warned that these persistent institutional failures are triggering severe, real-world consequences for families across the region. Most notably, local children are bearing the brunt of the administrative failure, as they are routinely denied progression in their education due to the lack of valid birth certificates required by school systems. The assembly collectively called for immediate emergency intervention to protect the academic and civil futures of the district's youth.

When called upon to address the floor, the district officer responsible for the Births and Deaths Registry failed to provide a logical or satisfactory explanation for the operational paralysis, drawing intense condemnation from the house. Stepping in to enforce order, the Presiding Member of the Assembly and representative for the Bonikope Electoral Area, Hon. Lawrence Katey, issued an immediate mandate. Katey ordered the officer to release all already-processed certificates to their rightful owners within seven days, while simultaneously utilizing the broader 21-day window to completely clear the remaining applications.

The high-stakes assembly meeting brought together vital local government actors, institutional heads, and department chiefs to critically review deteriorating public service delivery in the region. Moving forward, the assembly has established a rigorous tracking framework to ensure compliance with the newly set boundaries. The registrar's day-to-day progress in clearing out the backlogged documents is expected to be under aggressive, microscopic surveillance by local authorities until the 21-day deadline elapses.