Dear Editor,
News that the Passport Office is back to 5 days of processing for a passport is good news. President Ali has shown that he is a man of action. The President has tackled sloth at two Government Departments by announcing his clean-up initiative. We await a similar announcement for the NIS. The President will do well to issue similar initiatives to fix a broken Government system where the sloth and poor customer service at Ministries continue to bedevil the nation, and is especially more brutal against poor, rural country people who do not know how to navigate the system. People from the remote regions are easily pushed around and victimized, would readily pay bribes to get quick service and avoid the high transportation and related costs associated with our disease of “come-back-titis”.
I visited the Passport Office recently and observed things which can be changed, including their mindsets. So here are some suggestions. The Passport Office must use a ticket system and call up people by their numbers. I find it so backward and demeaning that you have to drag your behinds into every seat in the building in a game of musical chairs to get to the first chair to be served. This is 2023 not the 1970s. The Passport Office did a good thing to create a Senior Citizen row of chairs to give some priority. However, I had observed 3 young folks sitting in that section but Mr. Philadelphia quickly asked them to move when I pointed that out. The Passport Office should know that people are watching when friends and family are coming in and going to the head of the line and getting priority processing at the back room. The air conditioning in the building needs improvement. The water stations need to be serviced during the day to make sure there is water and there are cups. Applicants must be seen as customers, and good customer service practices must guide their interactions with the people.
To speed things up, The Passport Office may want to consider the feasibility of the “Apple Store” approach, where each employee can process a customer and there is no designated cashier’s cage. While people are sitting and waiting, instead of Immigration staff doing traffic control duties, use them to go around and check peoples’ documents so when they go to the back to take their pictures, the officers there don’t have much to do. They can also use appropriately programmed iPads to process applicants as they sit and wait. That makes the process more efficient. How about enabling on-line applications? That’s not rocket science! If we think creatively, we can avoid the old “sit and wait” culture where you have to spend a whole day to get simple government business done because of poor, broken systems.
The Passport Office has been closing off accepting applications by 9:00 am. So a rural person or senior citizen who does not know that, will get up early, spend a lot of money to go to the Passport Office only to be told they are not accepting any more applications, come back another day. We must end this bad practice. The Regional System was supposed to make things easier for people. But that’s a broken, ineffective and inefficient system that needs a makeover. The processing of Passport and other applications at the Regional Offices must be as efficient as the Georgetown Office. Why should it take longer when we all deserve equal treatment and equitable services? We must put an end to longer processing times at the regional offices. That’s a root cause solution.
Finally, the Passport Form needs to be revised. It is a citizen’s right to obtain a Passport. Section 7 of the Form is not needed. Why is it necessary to require a “recommender” and the passport Office has a narrow list of who can be recommenders? That must be a practice from colonial times, and should be scrapped. Why does the recommender need to sign the picture that the picture is you? That seems to be an extra, unnecessary step. Would the Officer not see it is you when you go to take your picture? If they are doing electronic pictures, why the need for a photo, when the picture is stored in their system? What is the purpose of Question 5 that asks “Passport required for travel to?” Isn’t a Passport required for travel to all foreign countries, and that is therefore a redundant question? Also, why do you need to ask “Purpose of Travel?” Does it matter whether you go for vacation, for a funeral, or other reason? That seems to be an unnecessary question.
Thank you, President Ali, for intervening and jacking up services at the Ministries. The people love that you are listening. Thank you. Fire them up or fire those who stand in the way and are wedded to old mindsets and old practices that hurt our people. While you are at it, fire those Ministers who cannot run proper Ministries, don’t allow them to be a drag on your Government.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
