Dear Editor,
Two days ago, an anonymously written letter `Runaround from Government Valuation Office’ was published in your columns. Incredibly, the Ministry of Finance which has which always been too busy to address members of the public, responded in your columns yesterday by inviting the person to visit the Valuation Office “so that this issue can be resolved”. I wish that person luck.
By asking the anonymous writer to visit the same office which has been pushing that person around, the Ministry is hoping to avoid the serious issues which members of the public have with the Valuation Office. These issues need to be addressed by the Ministry and not by the same persons who engage in the mischief in the first place. Indeed, they require the intervention at the very high levels in the Ministry, including at the political and the executive levels. The absurdity of the intervention and invitation by the Ministry of Finance is that without knowing where the person lives, the PRO designated a time yesterday morning for the person to visit the Valuation Office.
Editor, I am naming myself and am formally notifying the Ministry of Finance which has ministerial oversight for the Valuation Office of the serious problems, including month-long delays, unacceptable displays of incompetence and worse, which Ram & McRae, Chartered Accountants and Christopher Ram & Associates, Attorneys-at-Law have experienced and continue to experience in our interaction with the Valuation Department. I had earlier brought this matter to the attention of a senior functionary in the Ministry of Finance who indicated to me that the Ministry has long been aware of the problems faced by members of the public, including the payment of significant sums of money for free services, and who invited me to “write a letter to the press.”
I am today copying this letter to the two Ministers in the Ministry of Finance and the Finance Secretary asking for an invitation to meet with anyone of them to relate the experiences which we have had with the Office and to make recommendations to them.
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Ram
Ram & McRae,
Christopher Ram & Associates.
