Dear Editor,
An experience on the last banking day before Christmas has caused me to reflect and ask the following questions. What is the purpose of banks in a developing country and economy? Are banks in Guyana up to the task of spurring entrepreneurship, creating investor confidence in the banking system and implementing innovative policy to increase productivity?
Some answers to what is haunting me may reflect on unions. Therefore, as Guyana cries out for development, have unions here been looking at innovative ways to help businesses and investors create that comfort zone for investors to set up shop here, have unionized workers and not be wiped out by crippling strikes? Have unions been trying to transition from the nineteenth century into the twenty-first? Are there any policies or strategies to sensitize workers to employers’ expectations in this new global economy and market place?
On the 23rd of December I arrived at my bank at 2pm to do some transactions so that the contractors working for me can be paid and have a merry Christmas. The bank normally closes at 2.30 but I found the doors secured and was advised by security that the bank closed at 1.30. How should I have known that the bank was going to close one hour earlier on the last banking day before Christmas? It was advertised in the newspapers. Well, I spent the week forty odd miles south of Kwakwani where there are not even phone signals.
That situation caused me to blow a fuse and the good news is that the bank went out of its way to accommodate me. However, the episode started me thinking. All the discrepancies I have noticed with the banking system in Guyana have come to the fore. My query is why local banks have not tried to bring themselves in line with international banks.
Banks in Guyana should open at 9am and remain open up to at least 6pm. Why? By simply extending the banking hours, productivity is created within all other sectors because as it stands, a worker who normally comes off at 4pm or 5pm cannot get into the bank. It means that worker has to take some time off during the normal working period to do banking transactions. That is lost productivity paid for with scarce tax revenue or out of an investor or business person’s pocket. I wish an auditor could calculate the yearly cost of tax revenue that is used to pay for non-production due to unrealistic banking hours.
I sometimes wonder how bank CEOs and maybe even the governor can live with the long lines of persons outside ATMs on Fridays. Republic Bank seems to have the accounts for the majority of departments and businesses in the country, but shows little care for the workers of the institutions and businesses they represent. Have you ever tried getting some money out of that bank’s ATM on a Friday afternoon?
Another reason for re-looking at closing hours for banks is that right now 2.30 in Guyana is 12.30 in Texas, USA. It is just mid-day at my company’s US bank. Wire transfer from account to account is also a problem. Transfers go to the banks account here then are transferred at a later time to my account. Now, stiff competition is coming from Money Gram and Western Union. These private businesses are open until 8 at night. You can pick up a money transfer within fifteen minutes. So I am forced to make a dangerous transaction – pick up cash at a Money Gram and move it over to my bank, if I want a quick money transfer. What’s causing the complacency with the commercial banks?
Another major obstruction to development and a loss of productivity is the lunch break. In my business I have to deal with GRA and GFC. Between 12 and 1 all staff down tools – it’s lunch time. So if you are a businessman and you need to drop off some shipping documents before you head up to the airport to catch a flight, and you happen to get to one of these departments at 12.05, you can either forget about the documents or the flight. Why can’t there be staggered lunch breaks you ask? Well… Also, these departments are guilty of ceasing to take money too early, forcing a lot of business persons to complete tomorrow what can be done today.
I imagine that the reason for all these operating procedures is outdated rules laid down by unions. Newsflash. Business owners and CEOs have to be imaginative and innovative, and break away from the old mould to jump-start massive development. You cannot allow unions to keep you in a straitjacket. Union leaders are not likely to use their own cash or go to a bank to raise capital to open a business to create employment. Therefore it is up to CEO, business owners and investors to set the pace and the new trends in the twenty-first century. You need to tell the unions the direction in which you are going and give them a chance to follow.
I do not think that we can afford complacency from CEOs, big business, heads of departments and leaders. They have to get up and set the pace. Too many wait on government to make the directional change so we all get bogged down. What about leaders taking the bull by the horns? Make the moves that need to be made and watch everyone else follow new trends. What say you?
Yours faithfully,
F Skinner
