Stupidity reigns at Customs

It is a well established fact that anything that is administered by the Government of this country is fraught with red tape, incompetence and inefficiency that renders it incapable of performing on an acceptable level and on an economic basis.

In the bad old colonial days, every department of government, such as works, health, education etc was placed under the direct supervision of a "director" who was a highly qualified and experienced individual in his or her particular field of operation and was responsible and answerable for the efficient performance of his department. Unfortunately, however, at the present time, government departments have been replaced by government "ministries" which are headed by individuals of very questionable qualification, little or no experience in the operation of the particular ministry that they are assigned to, some of them elected by the people and some introduced through the back door of the senate by the Prime Minister, their main and perhaps only qualification being that they are members of the ruling party.

To demonstrate the gross inefficiency of the present system, it is noteworthy but ludicrous to hear that the Government has indicated that it is forming 15 new state companies specifically to supervise the operation of 15 existing state enterprises that are not currently performing.

My question is, who are the "ministers" under which these 15 state enterprises fall and why have they not been held accountable and relieved of their posts?

It is a clear indication that these ministers are totally incapable of performing their duties with any degree of capability and should be promptly removed from office. If you would like an example of the utter nonsense that takes place with the examination of goods by customs officers on the dock, just listen to this. When I was secretary of the South Rifle Association some years ago, I went with a police officer and other members of the association to collect a shipment of ammunition from the dock consisting of about 30,000 rounds of ammunition of various calibre shipped from Winchester in the USA.

The shipment consisted of boxes of 50 cartridges per box, packaged in cartons containing ten boxes each and further packaged in a stout cardboard box securely stapled and sealed with all the relevant information printed on the outside of the box. Well, the customs officer in question thought it necessary to count every single cartridge by opening every single box with his finger moving from one cartridge to the next. He spent several hours doing this even though it was physically impossible to place one extra cartridge in any of the boxes of fifty.

Two things you can’t beat a Trini for, ingenuity and stupidity.

My sympathy lies with the poor unfortunate consumers.

MARTIN KAVANAGH

La Romaine