Oranjestad, St. Eustatius- In the first half of 2020 the second and final phase of the clean-up process of the PIVA (population administration) takes place at the Civil Registry Office of St. Eustatius.

The second step in the project will entail an in-depth examination of the accuracy, correctness, timeliness, or completeness of the information contained in the PIVA of all inhabitants of Statia. In contrast to Phase 1 this research will take place internally at the Civil Registry Office (Census Office).

From January 6th until February 14th the records of all residents will be checked. This will be done by the Census Office in collaboration with 5 Personal Data Record specialists from various municipalities in the Netherlands and the National Office for Identity Data (Rijksdienst voor Identiteitsgegevens) of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in the Hague.

In a previous phase, experts walked house-to-house to ensure that the actual situation at addresses matched the information at the Census Office.

Long history

The imperfections within the Census Department on St. Eustatius have a long history. Due to the ‘pollution’ of the system for a long period of time it was not clear exactly how many inhabitants the island actually had, because many citizens who left the island, failed to communicated this at the Census Office.

The lack of clarity in the Census Office also had its impact during elections on the island, because at times it was not clear what the exact number of eligible voters was.

After several interventions and especially after the wrap-up of this last phase, the accuracy at the Census Office will have dramatically improved.