Alimony Problems
I was up at the magistrate’s court last week and noticed the many women who were milling around there. I spotted a lady I knew and asked her what they were all waiting for. She said that they had come to collect their child maintenance cheques. But she said that many of them were disappointed because theirs had not arrived.
I enquired and was told that when the men pay the money it is sent to Suva for administrative purposes and then returned to Lautoka for payment. I think this is silly; does it really have to be sent to Suva? Why can documentation be sent to Suva and the money remain in Lautoka? Would the ministry responsible please ease the women’s burden?
I heard that the men usually call the woman and tell them that they had paid the money also telling the woman the amount so the woman with the child comes into town to collect on the date allocated for collection. Many of then scrounge around for enough bus fare and come into town. Just imagine their horror and disappointment when they arrive and are told that the money had not returned from Suva. Women who travel for far out of Lautoka have to ask for money to take them back. Kids are usually baffled when they are told that they have to return home and not go into town to buy milk and bread and other things. I saw many tearful faces that day and I heard a child ask his mother, “Na, kedaru sa sega ni lako va na sitoa?” (Mum we not going to the shop?”) I saw a lady handing 70 cents to another and the recipient saying that she would pay it back when she got her money. My heart cried for the mother and child. That is after the mother was told to come back in a week’s time. It’s a sorry sight to see and I think the people who work in that offices are unfeeling and don’t care about the welfare of the child, because you see ultimately it’s the child who suffers. Even if the child is born out of wedlock he or she should not get the treatment that is being given out now. Employees of the office are not to judge the woman and child, their job is to dispense the money.
One woman had come to collect her child support money and was told that only half have been sent back from Suva. How can this be? The money paid by the father is all for the mother and child, why have the office been halving or not sending the whole amount back. Are they taking service fee, if so please tell us how it works?
May I suggest that when men make payment they receive a receipt which they give the mother. When the mother goes to collect the money she presents that receipt as evidence and must get the whole amount. And if the money is really being sent to Suva, why? And is the Suva office really sending back only half, why? Is the money being diverted to other payments? This is wrong.
To the authorities, please make amends and I hope government by reading this letter finds out what is going on in that office and put things right and find the culprit that is being doing this and punish them. The civil service gets its bad name from civil servants who are not civil. I am glad that this government is weeding out the malua fever and Colonial hangover. And to the department concerned, please don’t treat the women and children like this. And do you expect them to just keep quite about it? This smells highly of mismanagement.
4 comments:
This is only one example of incompetency in the civil service which hopefully the current reforms will solve. Many unemployed and low income earners waste their scarce cash resource on busfares to access service by civil servants only to be told that - a) the civil servant is not at work or b) they are to come back another day.
One would have thought that reforms in the civil service thus far would have gotten rid of such incompetency by now. May it all disappear by 2014.
@ Incompetence within the Fiji Civil Service.....
You are so right. However, it is the mindset which must be changed to effect any lasting outcome. Civil Servants are required (some might say more than required?) to provide service. If they fail to do so, then taxpayers money is wasted on them. In the private sector they would all be sacked. The bottom line would demand this and others' jobs would also be axed due to business falling away and orders going to Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia. It is very simple economics. Shape up or .... Ship Out! The proposition that a Minimum Wage for all will achieve this fundamental reform is quite erroneous. It will be inherently unjust since the lazy will be rewarded and the industrious will not be able to achieve their due and just reward (in wages or in bonuses). This is ALWAYS a matter best handled by the employer (could be 'government') and the employee. Whoever pays the Piper!
Incompetent and absent civil servants...want to know where they are?
It has already been reliable determined that some civil servants are watching serial films when they should be at work. Procedures are now in place to make sure this cannot happen. But for years and years......it has!
I believe all Child Support payments should be court-ordered. This way, it guarantees the continuity of payments, goes after the father and employer when no payment is received, or, goes after the government if and when there is a delay in getting payments to the custodial parent. Child Support should also have the right to up the amount of payment should the non-custodial parent gets a pay raise. Hearings to make the determination for the increase should be done with both parents present. In this state, Child support officials usually preside over such hearings.
With regard to the bureaucracy, it's really sad that the government is so bloated...not with a healthy budget which would be great, but with a bureaucracy so huge, it has ceased to be effective. In this age of computers and all the other electronic gadgets out there, communication is so much faster, and the gadgets get outdated faster too. But, the civil servants in Fiji slow things down because they need to justify being where they are and that they are doing something, even if it's pushing red tape day in and day out. The alternative? Unemployment. Would be good if the private sector was big enough to absorb some of these people, but, let's hope that developing the rural areas will see an increase in outward mobilization of the labor force.
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