By Dennie Quill, ContributorIT'S SUCH a tragedy to read about the woes of the postal service. Poor Miss Blossom can't pay her utility bills. She confirmed that a number of post offices were either without electricity or telephone services due to non-payment of bills. It is estimated that the Post Office needs $1 billion to operate efficiently and with only $751 million allocated from the national budget, and with the post office's inability to make money, the service continues to be in tatters. I say this is a tragedy because someone is eating the post office's supper. And I mean that literally. Really!
Scores of businesses have developed around courier services - both local and international - in the last two decades or so. Presumably they are making money because the field is getting crowded and no one is complaining about slimmer margins. Think letter, and a few persons may think post office, think quick delivery of letter, and the majority will think Courier.
GRIM REVENUE
The grim revenue situation may mean dramatic changes in the system. Dr. O'Meally-Nelson, the Postmaster-General talked about regularisation of the services and pointed out that some post offices were overstaffed while others had more space than they could use. She was quoted as saying there is "a need for a shift in terms of the new demographics" whatever that means.
But as the Postmaster-General and the administration consider various options, nothing should be left off the table and they may want to visit the Post Office Act as I did this week. I was drawn to Section 6 entitled "Exclusive privilege of the Postmaster-General."
According to this section, the Postmaster-General has the exclusive privilege (my emphasis) of conveying from one place to another within the Island, or into or out of the island and from or to any place between which and the Island postal communications are established, whether by land or sea or by air, all letters..." except in certain specified cases.
The exceptions include letters carried by a private friend on his way, journey or travel, without reward, letters carried by a messenger who is solely employed to the sender or receiver, Court documents and letters carried along with goods being delivered.
If my layman eyes are reading correctly, then I am justified in concluding that someone has been feasting lavishly at the expense of the post office. Mr. Phillip Paulwell who has responsibility for the postal service is himself an attorney-at-law and one presumes that he has at least read the Act. Can the Minister then explain why the Post Office has relinquished its exclusive privilege?
Admittedly, the process did not start under the watch of Mr. Paulwell, at the end of the day; Messrs Pearnel Charles and Robert Pickersgill are equally accountable. The Minister with responsibility for postal affairs is nothing less than custodian of the rights and privilege vested in the post offices on behalf of the people of Jamaica.
So determined was this 1941 Act to protect the Post Office, that it made it a criminal offence for any individual to deliver letters in violation of the monopoly. The fact that on summary conviction in a Resident Magistrate court the fine is a paltry $10 per letter or $20 per letter for repeat offenders supports my point. No one has been paying attention to this Act not the Minister, not the Postmaster-General, not their advisors.
Now the horse has broken loose. Substantial amount of money and resources have gone into establishing these businesses and predictably investors would chafe at any attempt to interfere. The powers that be having stood by and presided over the erosion of the post office monopoly may have lost the moral authority to intervene at this stage.
The post office dilemma demonstrates powerfully, the need for innovative leadership and a businesslike approach to stewardship. I cannot imagine any businessman who would allow his exclusive privilege to be purloined in this manner. I daresay if the Minister were in business, he would put up stout resistance to any attempt to take food from his table. Overburdened as we are, Jamaican taxpayers also expect sound fiscal management from our elected officials.
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT
In 1994 New Zealand became the first country to enact a Fiscal Responsibility Act whereby they set legal standards for transparency of fiscal policy and reporting and holding the Government fiscally responsible to the public for its performance. Many countries have followed, and I am hopeful that Jamaica would emulate them.
I predict that businesses will not survive without access to courier services. This is dictated by the environment in which we operate today, so courier services will survive and maybe prosper.
If the post office is to share in this era of prosperity it needs to urgently examine new options. For starters, the post office has the widest network of any enterprise in this country and it needs to capitalise on this advantage to provide a whole range of services to communities across the island.
Remember a time when prosperous relatives living overseas would send money home via postal or money order? For whatever reason the business declined and today this has been replaced by remittance services a multi-million dollar enterprise. I can't predict what else some savvy business people will carve from the post office dinner table but Miss Blossom better watch out.
Dennie Quill is a veteran
journalist who can be reached
at DennieQuill@hotmail.com.
