No response to email enquiries

AS a retired government servant, I am often approached by people to help them resolve problems.

If the problem is related to matters I am not familiar with, most times the information can be gleaned from official websites of government departments, answered by scrolling through FAQs or gleaned from blogs.

Some agencies that service the public have an online reporting system for customers to engage directly and reply to queries within a short time frame.

This is good as the public will know that the matter has been recorded and that there is a person attending to it who can be contacted to clarify matters or submit documents.

Recently, my neighbour approached me on whether he could claim back the money he put up as a bond guarantee to the Immigration Department for an Indian tourist in 1996 whom he later married.

He produced the bond certificate, bank records that showed RM750 was given as well as a reference number and the department’s confirmation.

I suggested he go to the nearest Immigration office to enquire and when he went to the one in Sri Hartamas, the officer was unsure about the process. He advised him to go to the original office where he put up the bond.

However, my neighbour was reluctant to go to there as he would have to travel out of state and high costs would be involved.

He was also unsure of whether he would be able to get his money back.

Failing to get the information required from the Immigration Department website, I decided to fill in the particulars of the problem on the online reporting system which promised a reply within three days.

There was no reply even after six working days, so I decided to send a reminder to the same website. It has been two weeks and still no reply.

The website displays the number of enquires recorded daily but there are no statistics on the number solved.

Contrast this with an enquiry that I forwarded on behalf of another friend who worked in Singapore for two years in the 1980s and contributed to the Central Provident Fund (CPF).

He wanted to know whether he still had money in his CPF account and how he should go about withdrawing it.

The answer could be found in the CPF official website as well as a link for queries.

An acknowledgement of receipt of query made is sent immediately with a promise of providing an answer in three days.

I received the reply and filled the necessary documents online, printed it out and he had it endorsed and sent by courier to CPF.

I was impressed with their efficiency in contrast to the lack of a reply to my query here.