Last Updated on August 10, 2021 4:07 pm by Editor
On July 18, we reported on a customer service breakdown where a senior citizen applied to the BWA for a temporary water connection to facilitate the construction of a house. That application was made on 13 May and the BWA collected the client’s $400 on 20 May without informing the client that it might take up to 90 days to install. For that and other reasons which we discussed in detail in the July 18 article, we issued the BWA with the first Customer Disservice Award.
Second Disservice Award
Regrettably we have to issue a second disservice award because it appears that this department is “not getting it”. Apparently, the BWA finally had the decency to call up the client on day No. 77 and went through the motion of issuing a work order to the Superintendent of Works, on the phone, with the client. It is an understatement to say that the client was not impressed.
The question that remains is why after collecting the client’s $400 on 20 May an order was not issued to said Superintendent of Works as soon as possible thereafter. And if it was issued, why does the Superintendent of Works need to take 90 days to get a plumber to do a 30 – 45 minute job? The BWA has not had the decency to explain, so in our view, their neanderthal behaviour merits another customer disservice award.
Counting from date of payment (20-May), the client’s application to date is now 81 days old!
We repeat our contention that 90 days for a water installation in an island that is 166 square miles is an insult to our intelligence and no doubt to the people in North America and Europe who read this publication.
It seems to have escaped those in charge at the BWA that the citizens of these countries are potential investors in Barbados and they are unlikely to be impressed with the speed with which things are done in this country in key areas such as housing plan approvals (TCP), registration of companies at Corporate Affairs and of course, the installation of water and electricity.
While some improvements have occurred at some of these institutions, the BWA remains the black sheep of the family.
Please note that according to the World Bank Group’s doingbusiness.com report, Barbados is listed as providing sewage and water connection in 26 days on page 13 as shown below. In the case of a TEMPORARY connection for house construction, common sense suggests that these inspections would be less detailed or not applicable. One of the parties here is telling the truth; the other is not. You be the judge. Readers can access the World Bank publication here.
Two “Barbadoses”
In the light of the above, Barbados Uncensored asserts that in a development with a water mains already installed an INSTALLATION SHOULD NOT TAKE ANY MORE TWO WEEKS (14 DAYS) FROM DATE OF PAYMENT. Barbados Uncensored challenges the BWA to refute the notion that this proposition is realistic. We are prepared to publish their relevant, unedited response to this challenge.
The Prime Minister indicated several weeks ago, in one of her trademark talks, that she would like to see tourists clear the airport in the shortest possible time, even if additional personnel have to be engaged to facilitate this.
When we hear grandiose statements like those and then experience the kind of piffle that the BWA and other government entities are dishing out to citizens, we know we have two “Barbadoses” as others have pointed out and that come 30th November this year, we will simply be making “banana republic” our official status if this government follows through on its promise to turn the island into a republic.
For our part, Barbados Uncensored hopes that the term “civil servant” is jettisoned as part of becoming a republic; too much of the civil service is neither civil nor understands what service means, notwithstanding the fact no less than the Son of God set us an example of what is to be a servant. So much for claiming to be a Christian society.
So regrettably, we have to agree with the late Errol Barrow that the civil service, for the most part, is an “army of occupation”.
But occupying armies have a shelf-life. The Russian army, powerful as it is, was driven out of Afghanistan by the Taliban after 10 years; the Cuban people are ready to throw off the shackles of communism after 60 years. As we say in the Barbadian vernacular, “wuh en cetch yuh, en pass yuh”.
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