THE NATION has had a number of stories on productivity. May I suggest that changes in Government procedures could massively increase Bajans’ productivity. Permit me to provide one example.
I have a small 26-foot boat, just two years old. The Ministry of Transport requires that I renew my boat licence registration every year. In the United States or Canada this would be a simple matter of going online, paying the required fee by credit card and receiving the renewal in the mail.
Here is the same procedure in Barbados.
First someone in the ministry writes me a letter reminding me to renew my registration. A letter that someone types up, gets out of the printer, has it signed by the ministry official, gets an envelope, addresses it and puts it in the mail to me. By now at least three people have touched this letter and spent more time on it than the whole matter took to complete in the US or Canada.
But we are just starting.
I get the letter which tells me that I have to have a survey done of my boat. No other jurisdiction asks for this as it is the Coast Guard’s and the boats insurer’s responsibility to do spot checks of boats to see if they comply with safety regulations.
But in Barbados I now have to get on the phone with an approved surveyor and make an appointment for him to come and survey my boat. He comes, we go to the boat and he has to fill out a long form. So far I have now invested almost two hours of completely unnecessary time.
Now back to that ministry letter, which tells me that I must now dress up to go to the ministry. I have to change and put on long pants and a collared shirt and proper shoes, and then drive to Warrens to the ministry’s offices. Another hour.
On entering there are three security people at the front desk who ask me to sign in, state my business, and I am given a name tag and told where to go.
On arriving in the ministry’s offices, a receptionist tells me to go down the hall to the boat licence lady. I give her my survey, last year’s registration form, proof of insurance, and she asks me to sit down and wait.
Temporary receipt
She goes and copies my documents and brings originals back to me. Then she is gone for a while and finally comes back and asks me to follow her to a desk in another area where payment is to be made. I sit down with yet another person, more paper is typed up and a bill is produced. I pay and am given what he identifies as a temporary receipt; the final one will come in the mail.
I return to the first lady who now has my new registration ready. I can leave and drive home and change again.
May I say that all the staff are professional and courteous. They are not the problem – the system is the problem.
Total time I have spent – about five hours. Total number of people who have dealt with the matter, that is, letter writing, mailing, mailman, security, receptionist – about six, probably more.
And what is the Government revenue for all this time and staff involved just to give me my licence renewal? $100. What was the cost to Government and my time cost? At least $1 000.
As we are all so painfully aware, this unproductive, inefficient method of Government doing things is duplicated in countless other departments – like getting a driver’s licence renewal, getting a passport stamped, getting something out of customs, getting a certificate of good conduct and dozens of other areas where you have Bajans taking hours and days away from work just to get basic, simple things done, that in other jurisdictions take minutes, not days.
What is so frustrating is that you do not have to reinvent the wheel. These computer programs and advanced fast methods already exist in other jurisdictions. Find the best ones and just apply it here. This could all be solved in a few months.
– MARY PRIEBE
