The Ministry of Justice yesterday unveiled a new computerised system, which is expected to revolutionise the way in which land records are kept in Antigua & Barbuda.
The Stewart Landfolio Suite is a programme developed by the Texas-based company Stewart International in collaboration with the Organisation of American States (OAS), and is now being piloted in Antigua. The system has an impressive range of capabilities, allowing officials to immediately access detailed records about virtually any plot of land on the island. It promises to eliminate the less efficient paper-based record-keeping system, thereby reducing both man-hours and the time needed to process information.
Each parcel of land is assigned a unique property identification number and the system has built-in security measures to minimise the possibility of fraud or human error.
According to officials at Stewart International, the system allows users to instantly view data meeting entered search criteria. For example, workers in the Land Registry Department can simply, by entering a landowner's name, view a wealth of information on all parcels of land owned by that individual.
Integrated into the landfolio system are high resolution aerial photographs of the entire island. This means that authorised users can see actual aerial images of sites and view the boundaries and structures currently on the plots. The photographs will be updated every three to five years, maintaining the currency of the information in the system.
Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer has endorsed the technology as a vital advance in the country's thrust to e-government and as a tool for greater transparency in government. Pointing out the wide scope of its value, Mr. Spencer made the point that the ability of the system to identify virtually every significant structure in the island could make for very precise targeting in future elections.
The e-government landfolio system also has applications in property tax in terms of land cadastre - keeping public records, surveys or maps detailing the value, extent and ownership of land to aid in tax assessment and analysis and ultimately to make the tax collection process more efficient.
The suite will not only prove useful to the government, but also to the banking and real estate sectors, emergency management services, and insurance companies.
According to Minister of Justice Colin Derrick, the value of the new system amounted to more than $2 million, roughly half of which was underwritten by Stewart International and the OAS, since Antigua is piloting the project.
At a meeting held to brief ministry officials on the new system, Richard Petty, senior vice president with Stewart International, expressed the hope that landfolio's successful application in Antigua will pave the way for the implementation of the system in nearby islands.
St. Kitts/Nevis, Dominica and Grenada have reportedly already expressed strong interest in the project.
The Stewart Internation-al/OAS vision is that a network of these systems throughout the OECS will make similar information accessible via the Internet for all participating territories.
Autor: Patricia Campbell
Quelle: AntiguaSun, 21.07.2005
