Document authentication office

Quality Service Charter for the Document Authentication Office

This Charter is a guide to the Document Authentication Office within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It outlines the service we provide and the standards of service we aim to achieve.

Our service

We aim to provide you with a quick and reliable service whenever you would like us to authenticate your documents.

We authenticate:

· documents that you need to send abroad

· documents that you have received from abroad

We have a large database of scanned specimen signatures of doctors, lawyers, notaries, commissioners for oaths, translators and others.

Documents you would like us to authenticate must always be signed. We will authenticate your document by matching its signature against that on our database. If we do not have a record of that particular signature, we will direct you to a relevant professional in the vicinity of our offices in order to cause you the least inconvenience possible.

Once we have ascertained the authenticity of the signature we will give you a certificate.

It should not take us longer than 5 minutes to carry out one authentication unless, of course, the professional who has signed your document had not previously submitted his signature to us.

Our Commitment

When contacting or visiting our office we will:

· treat you with courtesy and respect

· be responsive to your requests in the shortest possible time

· be clear and helpful

· deal with your enquiries and complaints quickly and effectively

You can get a better service by:

· bringing all the documents you would like us to authenticate

· specifying the number of authentications and indicating where in each document you would like the seal placed.

Opening Hours

We are open to the public from Monday to Friday at these times:

· 8.30 a.m. to 2.00pm (between 1st October and 15th June)

· 8.30 a.m. to noon (between 16th June and 30th September).

If you need any information feel free to call us on 21 222788.

Your Feedback

If you are not satisfied with our service, please come and speak to us or get in touch by post, phone or fax. You may also complete a Feedback Form available at our office and return it to us. We treat all feedback carefully, deal with it promptly and use it to continually improve our services.

Complaints

Your complete satisfaction is essential to us. We will look into all complaints as they help us improve our service.

If you would like to lodge a complaint, it is best to first speak to the person who served you.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may call at or write to our Office at the following address:

Document Authentication Office

Protocol Section

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Palazzo Parisio

Merchants Street

Valletta CMR 02

We will acknowledge your complaint promptly and give you a full reply within 2 weeks.

July 1999

May 2002