Home Letters If President Ali’s action can fix passports, it can fix NIS, birth...
Dear Editor,
News that the Passport Office is back to 5 days of processing for a passport is good news.
President Ali has shown that he is a man of action. The President has tackled sloth at two Government Departments by announcing his cleanup initiative. We await a similar announcement for the “NIS”, which should really be called “SIN” – a sin and great iniquity against the old people of this nation. The NIS Board is right there with them as enablers and co-conspirators.
The President would do well to issue similar initiatives to fix a broken Government system, where the sloth and poor customer service at Ministries continue to bedevil the nation, and is especially more brutal against poor rural country people who do not know how to navigate the system. People from remote regions are easily pushed around and victimised, and would readily pay bribes to get quick service and avoid the high transportation and related costs associated with our disease of “come-back-titis”.
I visited the Passport Office recently and observed things that can be changed, including the mindset of workers there. So, here are some suggestions:
The Passport Office must use a ticket system, and call up people by their number. I find it so backward and demeaning that you have to drag your behinds into every seat in the building in a game of musical chairs to get to the first chair to be served. This is 2023, not the 1970s, when Burnhamism ruled.
The Passport Office did a good thing by creating a Senior Citizen row of chairs to give some priority. I had observed 3 young folks sitting in that section, but Mr. Philadelphia quickly asked them to move, when I pointed that out.
The Passport Office should know that people are watching when friends and family are coming in and going to the head of the line and getting priority processing in the back room.
The air conditioning in the building needs improvement. The water stations need to be serviced during the day, to make sure there is water and there are cups. Applicants must be seen as customers, and good customer service practices must guide workers’ interactions with the people.
To speed things up, the Passport Office may want to consider the feasibility of the “Apple Store” approach, where each employee can process a customer, and there is no designated cashier’s cage. While people are sitting and waiting, instead of Immigration staff doing traffic control duties, use them to go around and check people’s documents, so when they go to the back to take their pictures, the officers there don’t have much to do.
They can also use appropriately programmed iPads to process applicants as they sit and wait. That makes the process more efficient. How about enabling online applications? That’s not rocket science! If we think creatively, we can avoid the old “sit and wait” culture, wherein you have to spend a whole day to get simple government business done, because of poor, broken systems.
The Passport Office has been closing off accepting applications by 9:00am. So, a rural person or senior citizen who does not know that will get up early, spend a lot of money to go to the Passport Office, only to be told they are not accepting any more applications, and come back another day. We must end this bad practice.
The ‘Regional System’ was supposed to make things easier for people, but that’s a broken, ineffective and inefficient system that needs a makeover. The processing of passport and other applications at the ‘Regional Offices’ must be as efficient as the Georgetown Office. Why should it take longer when we all deserve equal treatment and equitable services? We must put an end to longer processing times at the ‘Regional Offices’. That’s a root cause solution.
Finally, the passport application form needs to be revised. It is a citizen’s right to obtain a passport. Section 7 of the form is not needed. Why is it necessary to require a “recommender”, and the Passport Office has a narrow list of who can be recommenders? That must be a practice from colonial times, and should be scrapped.
Why does the recommender need to sign the picture that the picture is you? That seems to be an extra, unnecessary step. Would the officer not see it is you when you go to take your picture? If they are doing electronic pictures, why is there need for a photo, when the picture is stored in their system?
What is the purpose of Question 5, that asks “Passport required for travel to?” Isn’t a passport required for travel to all foreign countries, and that therefore a redundant question? Also, why do you need to ask “Purpose of Travel?”. Does it matter whether you go on vacation, for a funeral, or for other reasons? That seems to be an unnecessary question.
Thank you, President Ali, for intervening and jacking up services at the Ministries. The people love that you are listening. Thank you. Fire them up or fire those who stand in the way and are wedded to old mindsets and old practices that hurt our people. While you are at it, fire those ministers who cannot run proper ministries, don’t allow them to be a drag on your government.
Sincerely,
Dr Jerry Jailall
