Home Affairs Minister Wilfred Abrahams has deemed it unfortunate that there were pictures circulating with the long lines outside the post offices, and he stressed that they did not represent inefficiency on the part of the postal service.
Minister Abrahams was speaking during a press conference via the Zoom platform on Saturday.
Pointing out that the entity took “every single precaution possible to ensure that there was no pileup of persons”, he said while speaking to some of the people at Welches Post Office, they had indicated that they were in the line since 6:30 a.m.
“If when the post office opened at 7:15, there were already 70 to 100 people in the line, then anybody passing and taking a picture will see a long line and think that it reflected on the inefficiency of the postal service. I can tell you that that was not the case in this instance.
“The lines existed before the post office opened, and although the ladies and gentlemen of the postal service tried their best to push off as quickly as humanly possible, we were stymied by some persons wanting to pay bills. In many instances, persons paid a lot of bills at one time, and we all know our pensioners have their own way of dealing with things. I actually witnessed somebody who cashed their pension cheque; they took the cash, then they presented a bill for payment with a $100; got that bill paid; got their change and put that one side, then presented another bill with a $100. So, I mean, this is the way she has been doing it for her whole life…. They are our parents; they are our grandparents, and they have their systems, and we have to respect that, but this is just to explain why some people who took a snapshot in time may have seen long lines. I can tell you that we have checked; we’ve checked the time in the lines; the number of persons at opening and at closing, and I am satisfied that the post office processed all the persons there as quickly as humanly possible,” Mr. Abrahams stated.