Notaries in Oman will soon have access to to fingerprint reading devises to electronically verify the identify of those wanting to obtain official records. The Ministry of Justice announced yesterday that the department would be installing Fifty-four fingerprint reading devices in notary offices across the Sultanate as a trial of the new program. The Sultanate makes this level of verification possible due to the structure of the notary system; those seeking a notary public must travel to one of the 60 official offices for services.

Muscat, Oman / Times of Oman — The Ministry of Justice yesterday launched the fingerprint reader service at the Public Notary offices as a step towards digital format in record keeping.

Fifty-four fingerprint reading devices were put into operation in the first stage. The exercise will be completed later by providing more than one machine at each of the 60 Public Notary offices across the Sultanate. This will ensure that each Public Notary will have his own fingerprint reading device and it will be possible to ensure electronic verification of the identity of all visitors desirous of obtaining official records.

The system, which is linked to the Civil Status department at the Royal Oman Police (ROP), aims at providing maximum security for official records issued by the Notary offices and would also help save time and efforts in codification of the data pertaining to the visitors, including traditional women who would not have to reveal their faces.

The system is part of a package of electronic services in the Justice Department’s e-project, which will link up with 17 government entities, including the Administrative Affairs Council for the Judiciary, the ROP, the ministries of Finance, Housing, Manpower, Commerce and Industry and the Civil Service.

It will also cover computerisation of the administrative and financial aspects in the ministry, including tenders, procurement, recruitment, warehouses, as well as the special services related to archiving the official records issued by the Notary — some of these dating back to the first half of the last century.