Dear Editor,
‘F’ is the grade I would give to the GRA for service. The letter in the May 15 edition of SN which highlights problems at the Licence Revenue Office only touches the surface; a visit to Camp Street would confirm it.
The upper management of the GRA should learn that any system which requires continual queueing is inefficient and breeds corruption. The Camp Street head office is a typical example of a place which members of the public are forced to deal with in many ways. The least frustrating way is to enamour yourself to the staff; whatever it takes to avoid the many lines on that ground floor, taxpayers are forced to do.
No one derives any pleasure from visiting GRA’s offices, so telephone would be the preferred choice. Getting anyone on the telephone to assist, however, is an exercise in futility, which results in many people having to visit those offices causing all of the traffic chaos on the streets and inside the building. In the modern world there should have been giant strides to paperless transactions, but if the GRA cannot interface with the public by telephone on sometimes trivial matters then the wider use of computers ‒ for example to submit Customs entries electronically ‒ would be impossible.
Added to this is a constantly failing computer system. “The system is down,” is common in the parlance of the GRA. That applies throughout the GRA and it is why news reporters and opposition politicians in particular should pay keen attention to the operations of the GRA.
Those in the administration and the private sector are insensitive to the travails of ordinary people. Perhaps they have found better ways of getting things done at the GRA that they will share with the public.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
