Brunei: Where has all the mail gone?
A seminar to discuss the problems pertaining to the delivery of
letters was held at the Ministry of Development yesterday. The problems pertaining to the delivery of letters have been a thorn
in the side of the Postal Services Department in Brunei for some
time now. Complaints have come in via telephone calls and the media.
Individuals have also lodged complaints at the post office. The seminar was conducted by Awg Hj Kamis bin Alus, the Controller
of Posts at the Delivery Unit and chaired by Awg Mohd Alimin. According to investigations carried out by the post office, many
letters could not be delivered due to incorrect address labels. In
some cases, the mailing address no longer existed. Other problems included incorrect post-code, addressees having moved
away or incorrect house number. Approximately 42,332 letters are mailed daily and around 13,207,504
are mailed annually. All these letters need to be delivered by only
97 postmen. The number of postmen was inadequate when compared to
the increase in new houses and commercial buildings. Eight hundred and thirty-four letters cannot be delivered daily.
This amounts to 1.97 per cent of the total numbers of letters to be
delivered. Ninety-five per cent of letters, however, do get
delivered. In order to deal with the problem of undelivered mail, the Postal
Services Department has planned various programmes to boost its
image through the local media. The Department also plans to work towards solving these problems
with the aid of the public, especially Penghulu and Ketua Kampung as
well as Kampung and Mukim committee members.
Copyright 2001 Borneo Bulletin.
Source: World Reporter (Trade Mark) – Asia Intelligence Wire.
BORNEO BULLETIN, 05th August 2001
