Etcetera II

Sandy Grant | Monday April 22, 2013 00:00

What had happened to make this suddenly possible?  But another week brings other experiences which cause surprise or simply wonderment as to the very strange ways we chose to organise ourselves.

These stories invariably revolve around about the inability of well paid managers to manage. It can  come as no surprise therefore that my experience last week concerned the BMC.  Quite simply, I was curious to know the identities of the people who have been Board members during the immediate past.

This Board has been in the news for many long weeks, but it does seem to have been composed of strangely anonymous people. In the event, my attempt to give them an identity hit a rock because the BMC's most recent annual report - the obvious source for such information - proved to be unavailable.

 The 2006 annual report was the most recent possessed by the National Archives whilst the kind enquiries they made on my behalf showed that the National Assembly's library was only marginally better off - its most recent report being for 2010.

The assumption has to be either that no MP had wanted to study a more up to date report or that the BMC had never produced them. Either way, the situation should cause concern, even dismay, because the National Assembly is ultimately responsible on behalf of the country for the well being of the state owned project (it was never a cooperative as has been suggested).

But allow me to give two further examples to demonstrate how strangely we organise our affairs.  Informant A  (in fact my spouse) when seeking to pay Telecomms (the BTC) offered my debit card to be swiped. She was then asked to produce her Omang but because the names on the two did not match, the BTC refused the debit card and insisted that she pay with cash. 

She explained that the bank account was jointly in both our names and that no one had previously questioned her attempts to pay.

It made no difference. Rebuffed, she then went to the Water Utilities desk nearby to settle its account and offered the self same debit card which was promptly accepted - showing how two parastatals sharing the same office space can bewilder (and infuriate) their customers by having different procedures and requirements.

But then another tale of different systems in play was related by informant B who said that he needed to transfer a car from a company name to his name. At the Road Transport in Fairground he was informed that he needed, apart from the usual documents, a certified copy of certificate of registration of the company.

He possessed one such copy, certified by the Company Secretaries but was told that this was not acceptable. Only a Police certificate, or one signed by a lawyer, was acceptable.  Someone then suggested that he would find the processes much easier at the Roads Office building in BBS.

Sure enough, when he went there, the same documents were duly checked and found to be in order. As a senior citizen he was then accompanied to the counter and promptly served.

This time, the certificate of registration was not required whilst an Omang and a letter from the company sufficed. The transaction was quickly completed and he left grateful for the help provided. These two experiences should be found useful to the management of the BTC and the WUC and to the Permanent Secretary responsible for Roads.

In the first instance, might the two agree on the requirements they demand of those who try to pay? And in respect of the other, it must be asked why the procedures and requirements of this Ministry vary so significantly from one of its offices to another? Someone really does need to bring consistency to what needs to be a greatly improved public service.

But lastly, and very sadly, I must mention Aloysius Kgarebe whose recent death has been surprisingly ignored by both the public and private media. Personally, I had enormous regard for that man not because of the various distinguished offices he held, but because he encapsulated all the values of the old Botswana.

I knew him from my early days here but from then on, our paths diverged.

That said, I take him as a truly lovely man, a giant who made his own considerable contribution to the making of a new Botswana. I was fortunate to have known him.