ACTING commissioner of police DCP Erla Christopher has said applicants for a certificate of character (CoC) will have to wait about three weeks to receive the documents.

In a text message to Newsday on Wednesday. Christopher said, "The system is up. Within three weeks outstanding applications will be processed." Newsday asked if the police service (TTPS) was accepting fresh applications for CoCs or whether applicants should wait for the backlog to be cleared, and how the system had been fixed, such as an upgrade of software or hardware.

However, up to press time, we had received no further reply. Newsday was approached two weeks ago by a patient care assistant (PCA) seeking a certificate to accompany an overseas job application, after being laid off from the health sector, in which she had worked for the two years during the covid19 pandemic.

She told Newsday she knew of dozens of nurses and PCAs with jobs already lined up abroad, but who were now stymied by a lack of a certificate of character. On September 14, a police statement said the certificates could not be issued owing to an unspecified "system malfunction."

The TTPS is working to restore the system, which has been experiencing technical difficulties for the past several months, to its optimal function. The police apologised for the disruption and said all possible efforts were being made to remedy the situation in the shortest time.

On Tuesday TTPS communications unit Insp Michelle Lewis had told Newsday the police were working feverishly to restore the system, and urged the general public to continue to check the police service social media pages and website for further updates.

She said individuals could still attend CoC appointments and then present the receipt as proof to relevant agencies.Lewis added, "When the system is back up and functioning, the CoC validity period of six months will commence from that time."

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