Letter to the Editor |28 January 2020

Complaints about poor services

I bring to your attention two issues:

 a) The Registrar is unable to provide me with copy of site plan (cadastral) for plot T4271 and the title deed (lavant), reason being that the document is out of the office. For a three-week period I have been told this. How will I get the bank loan that I need without documentation. On Friday January 24 in the afternoon after going to Registrar again they advised that I can go to Survey Division for the site plan but for the title deed I still have to wait for Registrar until the document is available. 

On a positive note, I really appreciate the customer service at Land Registration as the staff are polite.

b) Since September 2020 I applied for the SEED grant. To date I have no response. I visited the Office 7 times and left my phone number 5 times. Nobody called me. Yet the Agency (ESA) advertised for people to come forward. I received lots of negative feedback advising that I am wasting my time with this Agency. Now I have first-hand experience as to why people discouraged me. I opened a bank account as advised by the officers and now the bank is slowly deducting all this money as monthly fee.  I would advise the officers against telling clients to open business bank accounts before they have the grant.

Upon visiting ESA, the officer that I am supposed to see was never around. (I was told that she is on lunch, wait as she is nearly back as lunch time is over, she is on visit, she is out, the officers will call you…) The last time that I went to the office, I saw an officer who does not handle the SEED grant. She also confirmed that the relevant officer will get back to me. To date, I have never received any response.

I am a really disappointed Seychellois to see the state of our government, unable to meet the basic needs of its people (return a call, acknowledge a letter, provide legal documents…).

Thank you for reading. I write with not much expectation. As generally the culture is one where most do not consider the distress caused by poor services on ordinary citizens. I feel that if I was a businessman who provided gifts to departments or a person who took time to build key contacts, then my affairs would be handled differently. Very sad indeed but this is how it is for many Seychellois who pays tax to only be treated with disdain.

Janine Henriette