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Some interesting facts on the Post Office

Feb 29, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
I wish to respond to the reply from GPOC of Feb 23, and Lydia Persaud’s letter of Feb 21, in relation to Birth/Death Certificates for applicants. When I saw the GPOC reply I went back and confirmed that Ms Persaud obviously knew the system and was very accurate in her complaint/analysis.
Yes the GPOC is an integral part of the system. I may have briefly referred to this before but some persons may not know of all the facts, unfortunately, apparently including the GPOC. During the decade of the 80’s the General Register Office (GRO) was assisted by the then Guyana Management Institute (GMI) to develop the new Birth Certificate System. They came to the PMG, of George Doris to discuss our assistance.
The GMI/GRO team was led by Ms Edwards and the GPOC team by me.  After discussion, we agreed to what came to be called by the GPOC, “The GRO/Postcode System”.  An internal GPOC circular was sent out to every Post Office setting out the SOP. Surely someone up there can find that circular? Or ask.
That SOP included the GPOC placing one of their staff (paid by GRO) in the GRO office, at least three transmittal bags for each Postal Facility, a code for each Post Office and a, then , three week maximum time for Certificates. Applicants were to go to their district PO and hand in the application. The PM then placed the applications in the GRO bag, sent it directly to the Postal Clerk in the GRO who ensured that it was properly coded and passed to the GRO staff for processing. The Certificate was handed by GRO staff to the GPOC clerk who sent it to the correct PO in a return bag for delivery to the original applicant.
If for some reason the Certificate was not found/processed, an appropriate note was enclosed in the bag for the PM to tell the applicant and perhaps get more information and return for another search.
That system worked well up to when I retired and migrated in 1991. Persons familiar will know why the system was manipulated and possibly changed to suit other agendas. It includes the total removal of anything suggesting the use or involvement of ‘retired’ Postal Staff in developing the GPOC. I personally recommended, unsuccessfully, over a year ago, a Banks DIH type brunch for retired staff and interaction with senior staff at that brunch to pass on critical knowledge/mentoring.
On another note, last week, PMG Doris had a final sendoff. I saw many retired/past Post Office employees from all levels and with hundreds of years total experience interacting and showing respect to one of their own.  As the first Welfare Officer (retired) asked “You mean even the Welfare Officer didn’t show”? A previous PIRO chimed in that if she were to be there she will fire some of them!  Of course this was consistent with the same behavior as when the GPTWU held a function in memory of Selwyn Felix and the GPOC management team was no show also.
An interesting aside is that Postal and Telegraph Clerk, George Doris was among the first three Post Office Training School Instructors under Coordinator, JHV Craig in the sixties. Perhaps fittingly (with his family’s agreement, belatedly) The PO Training School can now be renamed “The George Doris Training School”.
Finally as I told a senior management functionary, the Minister needs to take steps to help the GPOC get back to the basics to
L.A. Camacho

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