EDITOR, The Tribune.
Our politicians really need to stop treating us like fools. Neko Grant and Glenys Hanna-Martin can point fingers over the missing millions all they want; the public already knows what the real problem is at the Road Traffic Department.
The current minister admitted that such wholesale theft is made possible by the antiquated “paper“ system that is used by the department, but she didn’t explain why over the course of nearly a decade in charge, she never did anything about it. Mr Grant says “It wasn’t me,” yet the backward system was never upgraded on his watch either.
The reason for inaction in both cases is clear: A more efficient, even partially digital system would make scores if not hundreds of department employees redundant overnight. As it stands, even with the paper system it seems as if most of those who ride the time-clock at the Clarence E. Bain building have little or nothing of value to do on a daily basis.
Everyone who has applied for a driver’s license or has registered a car knows the drill: one booth to hand in your paperwork, a second booth to get it back, a third booth to make your payment, a fourth to receive your final documents.
This swollen, bloated system has nothing to do with necessity and everything to do with political expediency. In the minds of our politicians, the Road Traffic Department does not really exist to license cars and drivers; it exists to employ as many Bahamians as humanly possible, qualified or unqualified, by hook or by crook, all in an effort to secure their votes.
Public Hospitals Authority, Post Office, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Works, Business License office, Royal Bahamas Police Force – the same goes. These are operations that masquerade as official institutions working for the benefit of the public, but whose actual purpose in the minds of politicians is to amplify their opportunity to conduct job-for-vote swaps with members of the public.
As a result, public service efficiency in this country is a contradiction in terms and graft, bribery and corruption are the order of the day. In the end, it is we the people who suffer because it is our money that has been pilfered.
This is as clear as day yet not a soul in leadership seems willing to admit it. Who among our politicians will be brave enough to come clean and tell us what we already know?
TOM PAINE
Nassau,
May 11, 2016.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years ago
Re-post: The Auditor General should have conducted an investigation into how many of Hanna-Martin's supporters who are registered voters in her constituency are employed by RTD and other government departments and agencies for which she has ministerial responsibility. This is one sleazy corrupt woman who learned her political trickery from her father. Were it not for A. D. Hanna's willingness to engage in nepotism to ply his daughter's way in politics, the Bahamian people would have been spared the costly consequences of Hanna-Martin's incompetence as a career politician. The only thing this potcake of a politician ever came equipped with is a loud mouth; she is well known to bark, yap and yelp ad nauseam whenever hit by a stone! Hanna-Martin and Leslie Miller have an awful lot in common in that regard. And they both have a serious deficit of grey matter upstairs!
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years ago
Re-post: All of this fraud is happening right under the nose of Hanna-Martin.....this grossly incompetent MP should have been barred from holding any cabinet post many many years ago. The voters in her constituency need to wake up and understand that re-electing her time and time again has done absolutely nothing for their well-being. The people in her poor constituency who desperately need welfare and other social benefits are going without them because of all of the fraud and corruption happening right under the nose of Hanna-Martin that depletes and squanders vital financial resources needed elsewhere in our society by those truly in need of food, clothing, medicine and shelter. Career politicians like Hanna-Martin live the life of the political elite while leaving the rest of us living in abject misery! This is but one MP the voters need to reject outright in the next general election. The one with the short stubby grubby dirty sticky fingers remains at the very top of the list though, as does Christie himself!
bahamalove 8 years ago
This is a great letter which calls out the real reason why this country is in the mess it is in right now! Anyone that is willing to come in and clean up this mess must be willing to live with the fact that they will probably only last one term as the majority of the Bahamian populace will not vote for someone that does not give political favours or encourage graft, corruption and slackness. As Mr. Potcake Miller suggested, this stuff is so ingrained in our culture it is never going to be completely eliminated. This is the reality of our 'Christian' nation.
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