The office keeps the island's own register and issues the letters drawn from it: an address letter, a household letter, a certified copy of an entry, and a letter of introduction.
Twenty rufiyaa a letter, thirty for a certified copy, nothing where the school or the health centre has asked for it. Bring your identity document, and a signed note if the letter is for somebody else.
One thing particular to this island. About ninety people live here working in the guesthouses and are not on the island register, and they need address letters too. The council will issue one confirming the address at which a person is living, on a note from the guesthouse that employs them, and it says exactly that and nothing more. It is not a statement about anybody's status or their right to be anywhere, and the council will not write one that implies it.
The office cannot issue or replace a national identity document, or anything else belonging to a national registry. People are sent here for that and it is not ours. We will say where to go rather than take your paperwork.