If a strong UNPer went to the consular division of the Foreign Ministry, he will come out as a complete new person with a new vision — a voter for the JVP. Such is the public nuisance and chaotic situation at this important government institution.

I had the misfortune of visiting this institution at Kollupitiya to obtain authentication stamp on English translations of a birth certificate and a marriage certificate of my sister’s daughter.

There was a mass of people jam-packed in the small room where every job was handled. There were 4 queues – (1) inquiry counter to obtain application forms, (2) and (3) acceptance counters to accept completed forms (4) cashier — to receive money for the services, for those who did not have Rs. 100 stamp, being the service charge for each document.

After wasting 75 minutes in the application acceptance counter I was told that I am not entitled for this service, as the owner was in Sri Lanka — she must come personally to obtain the service. Had they told me that they followed this rule to the letter of the law at the time I made the inquiry, I would have saved 75 minutes of agony and high BP.

I went there again after one week, at 9.10 am accompanied by the owner of the certificates. On the first visit, I was given form No 1 and the 2nd day it was form No. 2 (for commercial certificates). Further, there was a new notice saying that stamps would not be accepted so we had to remove the stamps already pasted on the documents (costing us double the fees).

On this day we waited at the acceptance counter queue for 55 minutes exactly to hand over the documents. Documents were checked minutely for translation mistakes and a token/number was issued to pay the money to the cashier.

Cashier came to his chambers after 25 minutes. The best joke is that although token/numbers were issued to pay the cash, in an orderly manner, there was real chaos. He started calling numbers according to his whim and fancy - last come first serviced basis. It took another one hour in the cashier’s queue and further 30 minutes for them to deliver the signed documents to us, through the inquiry counter.

There was a scramble — people were pushing here and there in the cramped room as there was no system of calling numbers. Sri Lankan passport office had a similar chaotic system few years ago. Now it has been streamlined.

Consular office makes good money on the certification of documents daily. On that day I think income must have exceeded Rs.75,000, judging by the crowd. This is the daily income, daily chaos and daily nuisance at this government institution, some regulars told me.

Foreign Minister should intervene to streamline this service, as in the passport office so that there would be a proper system (first come first served) without inconveniencing the public at this revenue generating government institution.
Ariyasumithra Wijeyaratne
Piliyandala