Sidney Sweeting, DDS
I recently learned first hand the reason for the reference to "The Misery of Public Works"
For the first eight months of 2010 the traffic lights at Village Road and Shirley Street have been off more than they have been on. About two weeks ago I decided to call the Ministry of Public Works. Someone did answer the phone and I asked for the traffic light division. The gentleman who answered the phone said that he was frustrated with that intersection also because he lives in the East, but he did not have the authority to do anything about it, that I would have to speak to his supervisor who had not yet arrived – it was only 9:30 am.
When I finally got her on the phone she informed me that she did not have the authority either and transferred me to another department. The secretary there said that department was not responsible and referred me to another department. (stay with me it gets better) . The secretary in the third department said that I would have to speak with Miss X (the first lady who started me on the phone tour).
For some reason she got the impression that I was upset and tried to console me with the information that at one time we did not have traffic lights and I reminded her that there was a time when we did not have cars either. Her final advice to me was not to get upset but that I should pray about it. I did not know if she meant for me to pray that they would finally do their job but I did assure her that when motorists arrive at these intersections a lot of prayers are being offered.
The following week I placed a call to the office of the Minister and told his secretary of my get-aquainted session of the Ministry. The Minister was not in but she assured me that he would call me back. He did and he apologized for the frustrating day I had during my phone tour of his Ministry.
The next morning the lights were working. That evening they were off again. Since then they have been on for very brief periods and they are now off again
Maybe we should do as the lady said and we should have a day of prayer for the Ministry of Works
It gets better all the time Dr.Sweeting.That same ministry had Shirley street blocked up this morning AGAIN.Surely they know school is back in.Why can these idiots not get things done faster than they do, is it the overtime factor or what ? I have never seen so many lazy good for nothing idiots working for the government in all my life, they must be learning from Bahamasair.The minister is just as bad, after all is it not HIS responsibility ?
I just tried to get in touch with the ministry of works about the Shirley street road problem & was transferred three times, got cut off twice & hung up while waiting another time.We are in BIG trouble.No one knows anything,no one can help with anything,how do these idiots have a job ?
It is all breaking down, the function, structures, chains of command/responsibility, the works.
The private sector is holding on by the skin of their teeth, as my Grandmother would say.
I currently have all three fax lines down, apparently 3 is not enough for redundancy.
They are down because a BTC Tech. came and attempted to fix another unrelated line, which is also still down.
Who do I call, 914?
How on earth can I explain to her(usually)information to be passed on as to what the problem is, so the BTC tech has a fighting chance to effect a repair without completely shutting us down?
Every time they do show up, this is the net result.
Win one, discover you’ve lost one.
It is endless.
Nothing, and I mean nothing is straight forward anymore, no amount of rational reasoned thought can be applied to explain in any way what we endure at the hands of supposed leadership, elected or appointed.
I would like to see the FNM and PLP merge, as it will result in all of us being put out of our misery a damn sight faster than this slow apathetic but systemic demise we are facing.
I still don’t hear any movers and shakers coming to grips with the root causes of most of our problems.
The train is rolling, but there aren’t any tracks being laid.
Sorry for the rant, bad day of illogical inexplicable lunacy surrounding my sphere of operations.
Gents:
I agree with all of you and have often been frustrated and annoyed by various government offices and departments.
But I must give credit where credit is due. Let me share with you my recent experience with BEC. After going to the BEC web site [lamenting over my increased electricity bill], I decided to use their on-line facility to report some problems in my neighborhood. We had 2 streetlights out for at least 5 months and an area of overgrown trees into the power lines on my street. Between being in a busy hurricane season and having some burglary in the area, I wanted these items fixed. I might add, I didn’t need the stress of telephoning….been there – done that.
I reported these 2 problems on their website on a Saturday night. The following Monday I received 2 emails acknowledging the complaints and informing me which department they were forwarded to and a contact name for each department and issue. The next day – Tuesday, the trees were trimmed and cleared away from the power lines!! The following Monday or Tuesday the streetlights were on!!!
I know this is how it should always work… but I can tell you I was impressed! Congratulations BEC for great service and for getting it right!!
Now if I can get my bill a l’il lower… 🙂
Please, AGR let us all have this fantastic e-mail address. There must be someone there who knows how to get things done.
I had a similar case. I register for a dental convention which is held in Chicago every year in February. I register early to get the courses I want and to allow for our snail pace post office. This year I waited for my tickets to show up as long as I could then started calling the post office and getting nowhere. I finally called the Postmaster and he referred me to EMI. The gentleman there called me the next day – it had been sitting in the post for 3 weeks. I tried for weeks after to thank him and could not get him on the phone and finally presumed that he had been fired because he was making everyone else “look bad”>
Amazing AGR,Glad to hear someone in BEC is working, now if that attitude could be transferred to all other government departments, we just might get somewhere.Is it not strange that someone actually does their job & we think it was nothing short of a small miracle.What a country.
Here is the link to BEC service requests…
Hopefully others will find the success I did.
http://www.bahamaselectricity.com/customerservice/request_service/index.cfm
Shall we now pray for the Ministry of Nothing Works.. How can a government that can’t ever run the traffic lights ever be expected to run prudently the affairs of our country.. Both political parties are a failure so what is a poor, old Bahamian to do?? Pray for divine intervention, our only hope I guess….