How do you fight red tape in Ukraine? You set up a call center.
That’s what PM Yulia Tymoshenko has done, in an apparent bid to outshine Kyiv Mayor Leonid “Kosmos” Chernovetsky, a veteran call-center maniac and bureaucracy-buster.
Accompanied by Labor Minister Lyudmyla Denysova, Tymoshenko got her “random call” from what sounded like an initially unsuspecting help seeker.
Video uploaded from: http://censor.net.ua/go/offer/ResourceID/128179.html
Monday, July 27, 2009
Tymoshenko Tests Govt Call Center
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4 comments:
Well, everything can be tricked so these random call things can be manipulated as well. :D
I'm curious -- sorry for the many questions, but what's the point of having a government call center? Do people call to complain about problems, or to ask for help with filling out government forms, or what? And why should Ms Tymoshenko be involved? (Populism?)
Ropi,
Exactly my point! It's a show. I couldn’t help but recall this silly song from my teenage years:)
Lingüista,
Good guess! Those call centers have more to do with self-promotion than with improving the quality of government.
My dad, for instance, has repeatedly called the municipal hotline about a variety of local community issues. None of them has been resolved.
Taras, while Tymoshenko's message is good - that government should serve the people and should respond to the people - my impression is that she herself is treating government as her own private corporation.
This is the type of stunt that a CEO of a major corporation would pull for internal and external publicity purposes.
To put it differently - what does it take to form a business corporation in Ukraine (besides the bribes, I mean)?
It takes at least 10 steps, all involving all sorts of fees, and it takes a long time.
How does a call center solve that problem?
In tax havens, with which oligarchs in Ukraine are VERY familiar, such as the British Virgin Islands, or Cyprus, a corporation can be formed in one minute.
And Chernovetsky and other oligarchs like Firtash - and Lazarenko - have taken advantage of that - NUMEROUS times.
Creating a call center seems to me to create MORE red tape.
But in Ukraine, one confronts problems bass-ackwards.
Red tape? No problem - don't get rid of or change the difficult process of forming a corporation.
Create a call center instead!
Problem solved? Heck, no!
But you have someone to call. :-)
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