“Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.” Aaron Levenstein.
Statistics makes for amazing reporting but something is just not right with the vehicle import statistics you attributed to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) in the article captioned `Over 80,000 vehicles registered in 14 months’ which appeared in your edition of Monday 22nd, March, 2010. To add to the confusion, the figures you highlighted are just not adding up though I must confess my weakness in mathematics.
There are many instances of the improper and sometimes confusing use of statistics in articles in the local press. Not every reporter must be trusted to report on stories in which statistics have to be used.
Reporting statistics is quite dissimilar from straight hard news reporting or human interest stories. I learnt this from your late Editor-in-Chief Mr. David de Caires when I served on your editorial team in the early 1990’s.
A simple typographical mistake with a number can compromise the entire article though I suspect that is not the case with the news item in question since there has been elaboration and justification of the very numbers used.
Your report stated 81,473 vehicles were registered by the GRA for the past 14 months. Of this amount, 40 per cent or 32,589 were cars. One would then expect the remaining 60 per cent or 48,884 to consist of minibuses, lorries and other light and heavy duty vehicles.
However, separately, you mentioned the registering of 5,935 minibuses and 6,353 lorries for the same period. You did not say whether or not the above two amounts were part of the overall total. (Editor’s note: the two figures were part of the overall amount.) There was no `flow’ in the article. Rather, you provided the adjunct to state “According to the statistics within the same period, 17,181 motorcycles were registered along with 5,935 minibuses and 6,353 lorries.”
Is it true that for the period under review, 17,181 motorcycles were also imported and registered? Wow!!
Statistics are specific but for the purpose of this letter I will make some assumptions in an effort to see if I can make sense of what was actually reported by your newspaper.
Firstly, if I am to believe that in 14 months Guyana registered “over 32,000 cars” then, statistically, we should be in the “OO” series for cars alone since to fulfill each series we need 9,999 cars. We are still in the “MM” series, probably around mid-way, and still have some time to go to exhaust this series. So, under what series have some of the more than 32,000 cars been registered?
If indeed 81,473 vehicles were registered in just 14 months, then exactly how much vehicles do we have in the system? We may be heading for about 250,000 units which mean an average of 3 units per person, assuming a population of 750,000. Again, Wow!!
Assuming that 81,473 vehicles were registered in 14 months, this would translate to the Licensing Office processing and registering 290 vehicles every working day for an estimated 280 working days. This will be in addition to processing and registering approximately 61 motor cycles per day for the same period. Therefore, the total number of such transactions per day, inclusive of motorcycles and other vehicles, at the Licensing Office, was a stunning 351 for the period. Whew!!
For these transactions alone, the Licensing Office would have had to deal with at least 700 persons daily, assuming a representative each from the seller and buyer. This number of persons would have been in addition to the many others who would have visited the said office for other purposes.
These are amazing and unbelievable figures- and a most interesting story. The staff of the Licensing Office deserves all the kudos and awards they can get for being a very hardworking and efficient government office- processing and registering an average of 351 vehicles the past 14 months. This being the case, the Licensing Office must be made into a model institution which ought to be emulated throughout the public service. Let’s all give them a bow. But, wait!! Let’s await clarification before we waste our collective salutation.
Editor, on a related note, I wish to draw your attention to the fact that the “MM” series for light and heavy duty vehicles will be exhausted later this year once the trend of vehicle imports and registration continues. Logically, the next series in line will be the series “NN”.
NN is very close in resemblance to MM. Vehicles registered under an “NN” series could easily be mistaken for an “MM” vehicle especially in the event of an accident or the commission of a crime such as a robbery or hijacking.
I would strongly suggest that we skip this “NN” series and move to a series which is acceptable. The next series in line, “OO” does not sound acceptable. When a `P’ is added to “OO” it sounds much like a Pooh Bear or, in Guyanese parlance, a child’s excrement. I don’t think there is anyone who would like to say that “my vehicle number is POO……..” Therefore, like the NN, I strongly suggest that we skip this OO series as well.
There is already a precedent when it comes to skipping series. To avoid perceived inherent confusion, the series “II” was skipped in favour of “JJ” so that vehicles were registered as “PJJ” and “GJJ.”
Very seriously, I would now like to strongly and palpably suggest that after the exhaustion of the MM series, probably later this year or early next year, the PP series be adopted so that all vehicles being registered at the Licensing Office will be either “PPP” or “GPP.”
Irrespective of which side of the political fence we may be sitting or even if we are sitting on the fence itself, we will be driving a “PPP” or “GPP” series vehicle once we decide to own one during the duration of that series.
Wouldn’t that be a great gift for the Guyanese people especially with General Elections due in 2011? I sure think so. After all, owning a vehicle with a “PPP” series can very well connote a people progressing progressively. We must all be a part of that progress.
Yours faithfully,
Mahadeo Panchu
