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Opposition leader Allen Chastanet has called for equal citizen access to essential services, including passport applications.
And Chastanet has declared that the government is responsible for ensuring that access.
“The stark contrast between a private company’s expedited service and the experiences of ordinary citizens at the Passport Office highlights a system marred by inefficiencies and injustices,” the United Workers Party leader wrote on Facebook.
He also indicated that the government needed to take immediate steps to reform the system, address disparities, and uphold the principles of fairness, transparency, and equal treatment for all citizens.
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The announcement of the probe followed reports that a private company is facilitating pricey passport applications.
A viral social media post showed a $650 receipt from the paralegal service agency The Briefcase.
Manager Cindy Alexander-Gabriel acknowledged that her company issued the receipt.
“Based on this receipt, it may have been a passport application that was done, JP services rendered, the availability and purchase of a passport form and also photographs, ” Alexander-Gabriel explained to the radio programme Newsspin this week.
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But she also disclosed that The Briefcase offers other services free of charge.
She described The Briefcase as a small company assisting the public in birth certificates, business registration, identification card replacement, lost driver’s licenses, National Insurance Corporation documents, passports, typing job letters, photographs, photocopying and other services.
“We are not doing anything illegal. We are not doing anything fraudulent,” Alexander-Gabriel declared
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