EDITOR, The Tribune
I begin by acknowledging the efforts of the staff at the passport office who are courteous and hardworking but lament the poor system that is in place to serve the Bahamian public.
I visited the office to renew passports for my children and arrived around 10am to find a mass of people waiting inside and outside some standing, many with children. No numbers were available so I could not be served that day.
I was told to try come around 7am. I did so and met the same situation and was told persons had arrived from 4am and I should return next week.
Surely Bahamian taxpayers deserve to be served better by the public service and treated with dignity.
I appeal to the authorities to establish an online application, payment and appointment system and eliminate the need for applicants to bring in government issued documents, certainly if I provide my passport number, pertinent information, national insurance number the relevant government agencies can communicate with each other to verify my birth and anything else.
In the meantime we can make the requirements for first time passports, renewals, etc, universally available online and post the information in public spaces and inside and outside the passport office. Information desks at the passport office where persons can verify that they have the correct documents would also be useful.
As currently setup it appears that we do not care about each other and I know that this is not the case. The time has come to provide this essential service in a dignified manner.
SONIA BROWN
Nassau
April 19, 2019
Comments
Sickened 5 years ago
You are asking a lot Ms. Brown. Our managers in civil service certainly don't get evaluated on important issue like improving work flows, coming in under budget, efficiency gains. They seem to get paid no matter what they do... or if they do anything at all. Everyone working at the post office should be made to renew their passports just like everyone else so that they can feel the pain and humiliation that we feel. They obviously don't have AN INKLING of an idea of how the process works from the outside.
Sickened 5 years ago
Does anyone know who runs the passport office (not the Minister) and how long that person has been in that position?
sheeprunner12 5 years ago
Why should any bona fide Bahamian citizen have to pay at least $1,000 to fly to Nassau from the far-flung Out Islands and spend 2-3 days in Nassau at the Passport Office to get a renewal?????? .............. Why do we have an OPM/Administrator's Office there????????
This is how unreasonable, out-dated, and inconvenient our Government services are to the Out Island "colony" citizens
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