Frustration and stress at the Licence Revenue Office

Apr 04, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Tens of thousands of motor vehicle owners from Parika to Mahaica have to line up on Smyth Street, outside of the Licence Revenue Office (LRO), in order to take out their Road Service Licence (LRC). The lines are long and the wait infuriating.
To complicate matters even further, a new computerised LRC is being issued. This new document, which is required by law to be conspicuously displayed on your motor vehicle contains a number of new features and allows the LRO to have updated database of those vehicles for which LRCs have been issued.
It will also facilitate investigations by the police into frauds since it provides a computerised print out of the registered owner of the vehicle.

The new computerised LRC is therefore a welcome development because it will allow the tax authorities and the police to more easily track vehicles without an LRC. It will also allow them to be able to update their registration record and create a single database of vehicles still in use.
There are a number of vehicles which are no longer in use and this new system will allow for the LRO to know exactly how many vehicles are actually still being used in Guyana. From the fraud aspect it will be able to detect duplications. It will be recalled that some time ago, there was a case in which two vehicles had the same registration number.

With the possibility of vehicles being smuggled across our borders this new system will be extremely useful in helping to rid this country of unregistered and illegally imported vehicles.
As a new system, one must expect kinks. And already we have that with some owners finding that their record of ownership of a vehicle, at the LRO, has not been updated.
The Guyana Revenue Authority, the parent organisation of the LRO, has indicated that steps will be taken to deal with the problem by informing the police of those instances where the LRC does not reflect the actual owner. These problems are to be expected in a new system and therefore the GRA should not be harshly blamed.

Where I think the blame should be laid is the centralisation of the sale of these LRCs. The Smyth Street Office is handling all motor owners in Georgetown, West Demerara, East Bank, and the East Coast. This would probably account for 90 per cent of the motor vehicles in the country and therefore there are bound to be problems and frustrations caused by asking so many vehicles owners to acquire their LRO from that location.
In this computer age, there is no reason why the service cannot be decentralised. As one letter writer has pointed out, the solution is only a click away. Instead of having all these tens of thousands of motor vehicle owners flock to one office to obtain their LRO, there should be a number of other locations at which the LRC stickers are sold.

I am sure that the Guyana Revenue Authority would have considered this. But to have multiple hubs would require that all of these be linked to a single database because there would need to be real time interfacing if for example duplications are to be avoided.
For example, a person could go to one location and purchase his LRC for his vehicle and at the same time another person can use the same number and go to another location to purchase an LRC.
Unless all the various locations are networked, like what happens with the sale of airline tickets, fraud and duplications will only be intercepted after the customer would have departed and it would prove difficult in then finding the vehicle, which has a forged registration.
I am sure that if the GRA had the capability to establish multiple locations within the Demerara Region to issue LRCs, they would have done so. The system at present may not allow them to do better and therefore patience and consideration should be asked of vehicle owners.
However, the GRA must also appreciate the frustration that members of the public have to endure in obtaining their LRCs, and therefore should put measures in place to ease the frustration of those persons who have an infuriating time at the LRO office.

The LRO location is not the best. Parking space is a problem and thus you can imagine the confusion that reins down when a large number of persons are going at the same time to take out their LRCs. Perhaps the LRO could arrange for some additional parking in contiguous areas to the LRO office.
Secondly, the processing time can be long. Vehicle owners have to take a number of documents before an LRC can be issued. Some companies and individuals have large fleets and therefore when their turn at the window comes, the wait can be extremely long for those inside.
There have been instances where persons have turned up and joined the line only after spending a long time to find out that they do not have all the documentation required or they are in the wrong line. I would suggest to the GRA that they should place large signs of the fence of the LRO indicating the documents that are required before an LRC can be issued.

And I would further suggest that they employ some persons just out of secondary school to check to see all those entering the compound have the correct documents.
I have confidence that these children just out of school will do a better job than some of the guards and ushers that are usually employed elsewhere to deal with similar situations.
The main problem is however numbers. There are just too many persons going to the LRO during a short period of time and this leads to long lines and frustration that boils over.
I would suggest to the LRO that for the next few weeks that they open at 7 am and work right through until 5.30 pm. The present working hours are not going to help the situation.
By simply starting earlier, working through lunch and ending later each day, a great deal more LRCs can be issues.

I would also suggest that special shifts be put on Saturdays and Sundays.
The GRA has been making a great effort through its public relations in trying to improve its image.
Judging from the comments I heard in the line outside the LRO, all that hard work has been undermined, and the frustrated vehicle owners are roundly criticizing not only the GRA but also the government.

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