Dear Editor,
Please allow me the opportunity to respond to two letters posted in your publication by GHK Lall on June 14 and June 30 entitled ‘Where have all the ministers gone?’ and ‘There is something wrong with the ordeal at the Passport Office’ respectively.
I have chosen to respond to these missives because in both instances he has chosen to refer to my portfolio as Minister of Citizenship, and in the second has even suggested that my removal will prompt the corrections he is suggesting. It is unfortunate that Mr Lall, before penning these letters did not apprise himself of the comprehensive plan I have placed before parliament with regard to the overhaul of our outdated systems.
First, let me commend Mr Lall for his crusade to see improvements in the system with which I wholeheartedly agree. That is the reason the APNU+AFC government won the last election. The previous government, after 23 years, had done little to provide for the basic upgrade of systems in almost every sector of the country. The system of getting a passport in Guyana was and continues to be a tedious one, and has commanded my attention since my accession to this office. However, there are a number of issues that must be addressed in attempting to improve the operations of the Passport Office.
First, and in an effort at full disclosure, the Passport Office stills falls within the ambit of the Guyana Police Force, and as such is technically the responsibility of the Commissioner of Police, but as a corollary to this, it has been my recommendation that this department be made a semi-autonomous civilian-run facility in keeping with best practices in the Caribbean and wider world. It would then fall directly under the Department of Citizenship and this would allow for a broad range of structural adjustments that are not possible under the current dispensation both legally and logistically.
It would be naïve to think that one could arbitrarily institute changes in any system without the concomitant legislative framework being implemented. The fact that these issues were never addressed during the previous administration’s tenure is testament to neglect, inexperience and/or lack of concern for the people of this country and gives some indication of the amount of backlog the Granger administration must tackle, alongside keeping up with the day-to-day running of a country. This is a prodigious task for any government and Mr Lall’s admonition that we have been in government long enough and that 30 days is long enough to fix this problem is both disingenuous and uninformed.
To give some indication of the scope of the problem, let me address Mr Lall’s concerns as they were penned. It takes some 10 minutes to process a first-time applicant for a Guyana passport and using simple mathematics this would indicate that with the usual 400 daily arrivals at the office this would amount to 8 days of operation. During the recent spike in the number of daily applicants instigated by erroneous information peddled by forces out to create even more havoc, I had need to institute a system of numbering that has a cut-off point, so that the daily numbers could be reduced.
It is unfortunate that the building cannot accommodate all the applicants that come each day, but this is entirely dependent on the allocation of funds from the government to the Police Force under which this department currently operates.
Another of my recommendations is that the process of obtaining a passport be decentralized with facilities being set up in each region to prevent persons having to travel to Georgetown for this most basic of services. This of course would mean that we need to find the requisite staffing and infrastructure to make this possible. The current system of biometric passports is not only expensive but the technology required would have to be made available in every region with the accompanying security concerns having to be also addressed.
Mr Lall suggests unrealistically that we extend the working hours. This would only be possible with a larger staff pool and training and since we are currently stretched to the limit the implementation of this recommendation would not be immediately practicable.
We cannot expect that what has not been fixed in 23 years will be fixed in one year, so Mr Lall would be advised to constrain his comments to reasonable and judicious argument that is fair and factual and bring credibility to a discourse which is both sought and needed at this time of rebuilding of our country.
Yours faithfully
Winston Felix
Minister of Citizenship
