Sri Lanka Post: facing facts

BY UPALI S. Jayasekera

THE Post Office in recent times has come in for criticism over loss of mail and delay in delivery of letters.

The postal network in the country today consists of 630 post offices, 3,411 sub-post offices, 390 agency post offices, 156 rural agency post offices and 65 estate agency post offices.

The volume of mail handled is around 1.5 million items a day of which about 500,000 are posted in Colombo. The Registered Mail consists of 100,000 items a day.

Ninety eight per cent of this mail matter gets delivered to the addressees. Around two per cent or less may fall into the category that do not reach the addressses. The criticism is over those few letters that do not reach the addressees.

The ideal is that every letter posted should be delivered to the addressee. That, no doubt, is the responsibility of the Post, but that ideal cannot be achieved and does not exist in any country in the world.

Hundreds of undelivered letters are received in the Returned Letter Office in Colombo as a result of wrong addresses being furnished or because the addressees had left residence without leaving behind a forwarding address.

Writing the wrong house number or name of the road or street or even the delivery office could result in non-delivery or mis-delivery. The sender could presume that the correct address had been written when he or she had actually though mistakenly not done so.

Currency or valuables should not be enclosed in ordinary letters and printed matter packets. The insured post should be used to send currency and valuables. Money could also be sent using the Money Order services.

If postal staff come across letters suspected of containing currency or valuables, such letters should be compulsorily registered or insured. But it will be done only if such letters get into the correct hands.

The vast majority of postal employees are honest and bent on doing a good job of work. Of course, there are some dishonest employees too. There are dishonest people in every walk of society and the Post is not an exception.

The dishonest employee, if he lays his hands on such letters will secrete them for the purpose of extracting the currency and delivering or destroying the letters.

The public could co-operate with the postal authorities in stopping such malpractices by not enclosing currency in ordinary letters and by using the insured post to send currency.

It is necessary, and it is the correct procedure, for the senders to originate the complaint in respect of the non delivery of letters, as it is they who know how, when and where the letters were posted.

The addressee should examine the covers for signs of tampering in respect of ordinary as well us registered letters. Such letters, in fact, are not expected to be sent out for delivery.

If there are signs of tampering the acceptance of such letters could be refused. The addressee could call over at the delivery office, take delivery of the letters, open them in the presence of the Postmaster or Sub-Postmaster and lodge a complaint, if contents or part contents are found missing.

Once a letter is taken delivery of, it will be difficult to press a claim of loss of contents as the postman could take up the position that he delivered the letter in good condition.

Letters are delivered with flaps open or pasted down with adhesive tapes.

The postmen are not expected to deliver first class mail with flaps open whilst the postal staff should not send out such letters for delivery.

The addressees have to be noticed to call over at the office of delivery to take charge of the letters, after examining the correctness of the contents. The Postmaster should accept a written complaint immediately in the event the contents are missing.

There are instances when flaps snap open due to the failure on the part of the sender to paste them firmly. The addressee could refuse to accept letters with flaps open.

Where letters are deposited in a mail box placed at the residence, such letters could be produced before the Postmaster on the day of delivery or at least on the following day, and help in sorting out the case.

Adhesive tapes are used especially in letters received from countries outside Sri Lanka and in certain instances even in local postings adhesive tapes are used by the sender to press down flaps. The addresses often suspect that the postal staff had done so.

Pasting of adhesive tapes could be resorted to by errant employees as well and as such it is prudent not to use tapes on envelopes.

When letters are received slightly damaged, the post office staff should paste a repair label over the damaged part to protect the letter. The repair label which is a printed label should be date stamped and the officer protecting the letter should place his initial alongside the label. Otherwise, it cannot be considered as officially protected.

Adhesive tapes cannot be used on registered letters. In fact, the postal staff should not accept letters with adhesive tapes pasted for registration. This is a preventive measure against extraction of contents.

The date impression of the office of posting has to be placed not only for cancelling the stamps pasted but also on the flaps at the back of the covers at different points.

If the letters have been forced opened before delivery, an examination of the flaps will help detect the tampering as the date impressions will not be even.

The addressee should, therefore, examine the letter carefully before acceptance to see whether it is in good condition and sign the receipt if satisfied.

Otherwise, acceptance should be refused and thereafter it could be opened at the post office in the presence of the Postmaster and taken delivery of, if the contents are correct. A complaint should be otherwise lodged immediately with the Postmaster.

The loss of registered letters is mainly due to the bulk transfer system practised at the Central Mail Exchange, Colombo and certain District Post Offices, where the registered mail is heavy.

The bulk transfer procedure has been introduced to dispose of the day's postings even those received up to 4 p.m. the same day. The system permits substitution of letters and / or secretion of letters by unscrupulous employees.

The bulk transfer system could be done away with if postings, say up to 12 noon, are enclosed in the day's dispatch especially in the Registration Branch of the Central Mail Exchange and the postings thereafter are got ready for next day's dispatch. This will also allow for the curtailment of expenditure and better utilization of staff.

This should be so even in respect of the registered mail received for delivery. The periodical transfer and interchange of staff have also to be resorted to so that vested interests could be removed. This is being done at present to a certain extent but improvement is possible, especially in the Central Mail Exchange.

There has been a spate of complaints against certain post offices over loss of mail. Though some of the complaints appear baseless, yet, all in all, the complaints have to be viewed with concern. The reasons for this are many.

Senior officers have been assaulted and even been knifed in the past. Certain employees have used thuggery to prevent officers from taking action against them. The officers went on transfer in disgust. Others were silenced.

Political patronage did the rest. Discipline was brought to naught. On the other hand, there is a shortage of supervisory staff.

There is no effective supervision in the night when the mail is opened and sorted. A single junior office is in charge. These shortcomings need be removed, if complaints are to be avoided.

There was a time when, letters posted in any part of the country got delivered to the addressee within 24 hours. That was when good rail and road transport services operated, when new housing complexes under the village reawakening schemes did not exist and the volume of mail was not as heavy as today.

The Post Office depends heavily on public transport for the conveyance of mail. The railway used to consult the postal authorities before changing the railway time-table. This is not strictly adhered to now and as a result the mail services get disorganised when postal requirements are ignored or overlooked.

The deterioration of omnibus transport has also affected mail adversely. There are instances when buses do not operate on certain routes or fail to carry the mail for days. The mail is delayed as a result and the Post has to take the blame for such delays though it is beyond it's control.

The situation aggravated with the privatisation of omnibus transport. The World Bank was opposed to the provision of any clause in the new transport laws that will make carrying of mail in any vehicle used for regular transport of passengers on a route mandatory.

Non-availability of such provision adversely affects mail transport resulting in delay to the mail. With the re-establishment of the CTB, action could be taken to streamline the mail transport net-work to overcome the present impasse.

The Post Office, if expected to expand its own fleet of vehicles for transport of mail will have to increase postage rates to meet costs. The postal services then cannot be run charging affordable postage rates. Public transport at concessionary rates should be utilized if postage is to be kept within the reach of the average citizen.

The existence of indiscipline and corruption have no doubt contributed towards lowering of service standards. Political appointments and political patronage resorted to in the past have prevented enforcement of strict disciplinary standards and weeding out undesirable in the service.

Favouritism and discrimination in dealing with errant employees have prevented enforcement of discipline. Those officers who attempt to maintain high standards of honesty and efficiency receive little or no support.

Protection of the guilty and using the innocent as guinea pigs to help the culprits to get away appears to be another trend gaining ground. Two cases that came up recently could be quoted as examples.

One is the awarding of a tender for the supply of stamped envelopes worth millions to the wrong tenderer over which the Supreme Court awarded damages to the complainant tenderer who should have been correctly awarded the tender. When the investigation commenced, the Tender File recalled by apparently an interested party, had gone missing.

The loss of the file was not investigated and the party who recalled the file was allowed to go on retirement.

The investigations were so conducted that the officer who lost the file was allowed to go free, the officers who meddled with the tender documents without authority and the official who altered official records pertaining to the tender were spared and an officer was issued a charge sheet over an irrelevant irregularity of which he was innocent, as proved subsequently.

Those who handled the investigation failed to do a good job and a perusal of the Inquiry File will show that they were bent on saving the guilty. They were perhaps rewarded with promotions instead of being demoted.

The Inquiry File will be ideal to be used to train future Investigating Officers as to how not to do investigations! The culprits and the officials who saved them are carrying on regardless.

There was another case where an attempt was made to wrongly implicated a lady officer over loss of an EMS packet when evidence was there to prove that a senior officer had taken over the packet and that he had been in the habit of delivering such packets to the particular addressee in the past.

The officer who carried out the investigations had wantonly shut out evidence against the senior officer, refused to record the evidence of the lady officer as stated by her and, failed to take over the document incriminating the senior officer and had not acted responsibly.

That is a very serious case of wrong handling of an investigation, which needs review and punishment as a deterrent.

Investigation being carried out in a partisan or amateurish manner due to wrong attitudes or sheer ignorance of procedure need to be arrested.

Those properly trained and with an understanding of departmental procedures, rules and regulations should be appointed to hold investigations whilst those who direct investigations should be those who are competent.

There is no difficulty in adopting corrective measures if strict disciplinary standards are maintained and their are no square pegs in round holes.

The Post has built up its own identity. The brand name. "Post" has gained the confidence of the people world over. The Post should as such capitalize on its assets, network of offices, strength and public confidence to work towards a better future.

The writer is a Retired Deputy Postmaster General (Postal Services)