The optimists who still dream of seeing e-government in this country should wake up to the reality. Expectations may prove difficult to achieve given the entrenched red tape that will prove extremely difficult to fight, let alone remove all together. Take banks as an example. These institutions are supposed to be the most keen on offering smooth quality service away from bureaucratic constraints.
The performance of our banks is indeed efficient in certain areas, notably remittances. When it comes to other services, however, such as withdrawals or paying utility bills, a system dating back to the Middle Ages seems to apply.
This unfortunately is the case even with banks that have international links and which should long ago have overcome needless trouble and inconvenience for their clients.
The signature of the client should be the final judge in any transaction. Therefore bills with the signature of the client should be accepted without question whether they arrive by mail or courier.
Imagine a famous bank refusing to accept utility bills carrying the signature of the client on the pretext that these were handed over to the bank by the driver of the client who happened not to carry with him an official authorization from the client to deliver the papers to the bank!
Why on earth should a driver have to carry a written authorization for something he has no interest in? The driver has no access to the client’s account and it is not he who has chosen the bank to deliver the bills to. He is just a messenger, required to deliver papers signed by the holder of the account. The most ridiculous part of the story is that the bank has taken all the trouble to print special forms, dictating the kind of authorization it wants drivers and others to show when delivering bills from their employers.
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, which never intervenes to investigate the trouble and inconvenience local banks continue to cause clients, should do something. It is the money of those very clients that the banks prosper on. Are those who still talk about e-government dreaming of a day when they will be able to carry out all bank operations on a computer in their home or office?
