Small businesses still get Govt. runaround - Premier
He was speaking at a reception marking the 5th anniversary of the Complaints Commission at Maria’s By the Sea yesterday May 7, 2014.
Dr the Hon Smith said that in 2003 while he was Leader of the Opposition he was quite happy to support the formation of the Complaints Commission and supported it in the House of Assembly. The Complaints Commission was eventually put in place in 2009.
“I am still of the opinion that the Commission is an important part of the public service. I think that in any business that interfaces with the public there would be complaints pertaining to that business,” he said, noting that for business that is of the Government the complaints will be even greater.
He said this could be because of the greater expectation on the part of the public for the delivery of services by the Government.
“It is true that sometimes when the complaints are made it is possible that there could be some misunderstanding where when the complainant visits the office of the Complaints Commission the matter could be resolved very quickly and easily,” said Premier Smith.
He said that as the Commission takes complaints and makes representation to Government to try to resolve them, it is important that the conditions which engender the complaints in the first place would be addressed, so that this would not happen a second time.
He compared the function of the Complaints Commission to that of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Assembly in terms of keeping Government accountability in check and said that the Commission has been effective in its work.
He noted that a complaint often made by persons is about the difficulty to get a small business up and running in terms of the forms to be filled out and the process to be engaged. “Too often it is not done in a way that facilitates business,” said Dr. Smith.
“This is the perhaps one of the greatest [complaints received] by the Commission. Once this is brought to the attention of the Commissioner [Mr Elton Georges] he has meetings with the various departments of Government, for example Immigration. Hopefully by his intervention…the processes of Government could be improved,” he said.
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