Dear Editor,
Confucius said: “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Truer words were never spoken, as I am now discovering as a victim of Guyana’s NIS desire to tie me up in as many knots at possible, seemingly for pure sadistic pleasure, as there is neither rhyme not reason to their behaviour.
Here’s the story: as many of your readers will know, my mother Eileen Cox, an exceptional woman who spent most of her adult life fighting for the rights of all Guyanese, passed away last November. She had been disabled for the last few years of her life and so she had a full-time carer. I was paying this carer’s salary, as well as my mother’s maintenance, largely out of my salary, which I earn in Germany. Under German tax laws I can get some of this money back, but I have to provide evidence of my mother’s neediness.
Her main income for the last two years was her NIS pension, but unfortunately after her death all her documents were thrown out so I could not provide this proof. Simple, I thought. I’ll just get it from the NIS. When I was in Guyana last May, I dropped in to request a letter of proof.
This is the simple part. I wanted a letter with the NIS letterhead and stamp, with just one sentence: “We confirm that Eileen Cox was receiving a pension of $XXX.” That’s all. Or even, a simple printout showing her last pension. Couldn’t really be simpler.
The NIS clerk I spoke to asked me to submit the request in writing. I did so, and asked if I could have the letter back the next day, as I was leaving the country. No, she said, it would take three working days. OK, reasonable, I thought; I’ll fly home and my son can pick it up next week; he has a full power of attorney.
When he went to pick it up, he was told that Mum’s death certificate was needed. Still not too complicated; just that we did not yet have one. He applied for one, which took three weeks to arrive. OK, you’d think; now he can go and get the letter.
But no. Now they want proof that I paid the funeral costs. (If you’re wondering what her funeral costs have to do with a confirmation of her pension – no, I don’t know either. Maybe someone in the NIS knows.) I have the original receipt with me in Germany, and could scan and send that, but no, they want the original itself.
Oh, and by the way, they want me to come in and sign some document. I’m not sure what document this is. Maybe an affidavit confirming that the requested letter is not going to be used for money laundering or some other nefarious activity. How would I know; I think along simple lines. As I cannot fly to Guyana just to sign this thing, I proposed that my son send a scan of it, I sign it, and I send it back to him along with the original funeral costs receipt, per FedEx.
But again, no. That is not complicated enough for the NIS. My signature has to be notarised, and through a Guyana Embassy. And this last request, dear readers, is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Thus this letter, to expose the nonsense.
You see, I live in a small village in South Germany; there is no Guyanese Embassy in Germany. I would have to go to the nearest one, which is in Brussels. This involves a six-hour train journey there, a night in a hotel, and a return six-hour journey the next day. It also would cost me about €300 in travel and hotel expenses, and two days off my precious yearly holiday time, plus the fee for the notarisation, and the FedEx costs. And no, I am not going to make that trip again (I did it once, in another matter; that’s how I know). In fact, I can’t make it again as I have a limited amount of holidays and the last days are already used up for a trip I am making to Guyana in September.
The NIS has the original letter of request, with my signature. That should suffice. Plus, my son has a full power of attorney. He can buy and sell houses in my name, if need be. Why can’t he pick up a one-sentence letter? This is madness.
My mother was a pit-bull when it came to standing up for citizens in the face of greed, injustice, bullying, and plain stupidity. I would call the process I’ve been put through a power trip, plain and simple. Have the NIS staff nothing better to do than see people perform like circus animals? Since the requested letter is a one-off, there is no set rule or process for granting it. It couldn’t be simpler or more straightforward: one sentence. This is pure harassment. My mother must be turning in her grave.
If Guyana wants to move forward the public service needs to be swept clean, not only of fraudulent members of staff, but also of incompetent and inefficient ones, timewasters. We need a streamlined public service, one that gets things done swiftly and with a minimum of unnecessary paperwork. At the moment ‘getting things done’ – and this is not the first time I’ve experienced this – is like wading through a thick river of sludge.
This is not how a modern country operates. Public servants are there to serve, not to pester the citizenry by forcing them to run in circles. It’s a waste not only of time, but of money. This is almost like a Monty Python sketch, except I’m not laughing. The way I feel now, if I were that staff member’s boss I’d throw her out. Confucius would smile wisely, and roll his eyes.
Yours faithfully,
Sharon Westmaas
(Maas)
