Dear Editor,
It was good to see on SN’s page 16 the various messages relating to the recognition of World Post Day, with its theme being: ‘A new strategy for a new world’.
From the full page presentations some of us would have learnt for the first time of the appointment of a successor to the last Chairman (Juan Edghill). Mr. Vidiahar Persaud’s message comes to the reader, exceptionally without his portrait. The apparent shyness however is perhaps compensated for in his observation, as quoted below:
“As the world moves away from traditional services and technological innovations lead to what is a global revolution in this new ICT age, there is a pressing need to move beyond the usual comfort zones and boundaries that delineate traditional services of post offices around the world, to ensure that the post is in synch with the new ways and means of conducting business. And this requires innovations. It requires new approaches, taking risks and it requires strong leadership and teamwork. It requires careful planning, blueprinting and mapping”.
The above perspective was amply reinforced by Prime Minister Hinds, within whose portfolio falls the Guyana Post Office Corporation, in making the following declaration:
“A real revolution in thinking is required, firstly amongst those who work in the Post, since the monopoly in transference of packages and parcels is long gone! The public has to be courted, and any service discerned as might be profitably provided in society by the Post, must be robustly advocated and won”.
Notwithstanding, customers may take as much comfort as they can in the following pronouncement by the Postmaster General himself:
“We at the GPOC recognise that it is incumbent on Postal Administrations like ours to take on board the development at the regional and international levels. We are aware that in these changing times the Post needs to become more competitive and customer driven, this requires that we be responsive to change and at the same time equip ourselves to manage new opportunities”.
All the above sentiments could not add up to a strategy, reflect a work plan, nor a commitment to improve however and upgrade the operations of a service which cries out for the very change so glibly spoken of and so long overdue. The gentlemen may find it instructive to walk the floor.
Yours faithfully,
E B John
