However, The Sunday Gleaner received very little of this treatment when it called seeking information about some documents that should be available at the Office of the Prime Minister.

In our first attempt, we had to wait for nearly 45 minutes before any of the office's six lines were answered. After the long wait, an operator, sounding quite annoyed, eventually answered. We told her what we were seeking and she transferred us to another person without telling us who that person was. That person then asked us to call another number asking for the Prime Minister's assistant.

Frustrated

After several rings, our call to that department was finally answered and we were transferred to the assistant who took about five minutes to answer our call. Frustrated, we hung up and decided to attempt the call later.

When we tried calling again, we had to wait for several minutes before the calls were answered. We tried another line and an operator courteously answered the call and transferred us to the Permanent Secretary. That call was answered immediately and we were advised kindly to check with the Jamaica Information Service for the documents.

We filed a complaint about the service to the principal director of standards at OPM, Dwight Uylett, who courteously promised to address the issue.

"The OPM is now issuing tenders for the procurement of a new telephone system. The projected timeline for implementation is four months."

He also said our complaint was communicated to the telephone operators and better customer service was being reinforced.

Passing grade

The next organisation, National Land Agency (NLA) received a passing grade for its telephone service from TheSunday Gleaner team.

There were hardly any problems in receiving information about its services or excessive delays on the phone.

However, there seemed to be conflicting information relating to surveying and mapping. In the citizen's charter, the agency says it offers surveying of government lands, cadastral mapping of both government and private lands, and providing cadastral, topographic, hydrographic and other basic mapping services. When we made several checks, however, there was confusion about whether the NLA provided these basic mapping services for private lands.

When we made queries about whether these services were actually offered, we were directed to the director of surveys and mapping who was unavailable up to press time. We were, therefore, left wondering if these services were actually offered or if they had been transferred to another agency or terminated.

Undergoing renovations

All NLA offices had proper signs, except for the office at 20 North Street, which a senior employee said was undergoing renovations. Employees also wore identification cards, but their names and pictures were not clear.

The Sunday Gleaner team also tested whether the protocol of two days for acknowledging emails was being observed by this agency. The news team had sent an email requesting information on Tuesday, August 22. A response was recieved eight days later.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the Ministry of Finance and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) also scored favourably on our cards. Although most employees, excepting those from the Ministry of Finance, demonstrated little knowledge of the contents of their individual charters and their importance, the standard of service was generally good. When we made queries by telephone and visits to the agencies, the waiting period was largely minimal and employees were courteous.

However, at the ODPEM the agency failed to keep some relevant and up-to-date information on its children's website. Additionally, on its adult website, it was difficult to find general information on disaster management and preparedness even though the site had information on current weather developments.