Dear Editor,
As we end this month in which we observed Consumer Day, this consumer would like to highlight some concerns and hope someone will listen up and take some corrective action.
1. On Monday I took some overseas friends to the GRA. The wife was elegantly clad in a long cotton dress with armless sleeves. She was refused entry. Fortunately the husband did not go with short pants, and I remarked that District Commissioners of the past and people like the POTUS wife Ms Obama would have been turned away! This silly dress code that some Public Institutions (interestingly not the Banks) foist upon us needs to be reviewed. To make it more silly we have our Human Services Minister putting on a human face in a short and armless dress at the public gathering for International Woman’s Day. (See SN photo…Mar.10, a copy which I will show around to those hapless guards.) Please someone up there send down an edict!!!!
2: I go in Brooklyn and post a barrel to me in Guyana. The notice blares, the receipt confirms and I am told that I only did not prepay Customs duty, due in Guyana. I arrive here and on claiming the barrel from the same company, they demand a further G$1100.00 as Admin Charge, and something ca
lled Destuff/Warehouse charge of G$2000.00, and Security Charge of G$100.00, a total additional of US $16.00. Eh? The same barrel, the same company, who else handle the barrel? And whose warehouse? I can perhaps accept if I had used a different company who then ‘handed over’ my barrel to the next company to convey and deliver. Why did they not tell me that in New York? Would the Consumer Minister please look into it or do I have to lay a charge in New York with their Consumer Dept for “false advertising”?
3: The GRA says that they have a simplified system to clear barrels. Mr CG, please walk the walk, or send ‘shoppers’ as is done elsewhere to check. Starting at the Shipping counter line, then their Cashier line, then the warehouse Supervisor, then the Customs Chief (to look at you and initial the form), then the Warehouse, then the Customs Officer, then the Customs Cashier, then the delivery agent, then the Customs Clerk, then the Bond delivery line (two positions). If you are not in good physical shape, or suffer from heat flashes, sorry! And make sure you plan at least 90 minutes. Can’t we really simplify and let the Shipping company collect the duty and deliver normal barrels, and do sampling or whatever to control the system?
4: I write an overseas cheque, drawn on a US bank and deposit in my local bank. In less than seven days my New York Bank completes the transaction and those funds are no longer available to me in New York. My local bank however does not make the funds available to me here until after 45 working days, (and in some instances three months I am advised). Where is the beef??? Who uses these foreign funds where and for what purpose and which agency monitors these transactions? The Bank of Guyana??? It makes consumers seek other means than the formal system to transact transfers and makes a mockery of controls. I am inclined to deposit my IRS refund cheque, then complain to the US agencies that US Government funds are being misappropriated. Please someone look out for the consumers here!
5: I, as a consumer of information, know that biases and such will cloud information dissemination. I think however that editors and reporters need to hold the balance and not to leave issues to letter writers to (only) seek to dispel false information. For instance a letter writer proudly proclaimed recently that no housing developments took place between 1970 and 1990 and ipso facto only ‘nowadays’!
But what of the self help schemes where hundreds of houses were built by a system of full time persons seconded from work, and after work volunteers, to build under supervision of Ministry Staff. Go to Melanie or Vreed-en-Hoop or Roxanne Burnham Gardens etc and look. What of Festival City and its genesis and development? And what of the trade union schemes?
Remember CDC and their prefab three and four bedroom houses in South Ruimveldt? My wife and I with a collective salary of less than $400.00 monthly couldn’t qualify for that mortgage. Enter CDC with their own two bedroom model, the first one built by Netram and allocated to us (thanks Ms Dewar ). We paid down less than $1000.00, mortgage about $70.00, plus maintenance fee $10.00 monthly for a total property mortgage of about $8400.00.(all in G$). Residents will tell you that the Gardens and Park were just immaculate then! So no, it was not only bad things happening in those days, and only good things these days! Be fair!
6: Finally my previous organization GPOC. Please treat us with some degree of knowledge when you publicly respond to our concerns. Look at that letter response about the horses in the National Park. Do likewise, put all the facts clearly and we will sympathise and understand. We travel and we read. If I am going to Europe and my travel agent puts me to transit in Miami she better give me a very good explanation or give me substantial savings in time and money. In these days of computers, we do not have to wait on VN by mail, so verifying movement of mail is faster. Is not Caribbean Airlines the National Carrier? So can we justify paying foreign carriers instead? Or are there other security or speed considerations? Please PMG get your international mail expert to relook at these routings and give better public responses.
Yours faithfully,
LA Camacho
