A friend who wanted to register his company for VAT, decided to try doing this through the internet. After a Google search he was directed to the government portal and to his surprise found the VAT registration form 101; he was impressed that there was even an option to add the relevant attachments to the form.Translation note: VAT is a sales tax charged in the European Union and some other countries.
He filled out the form, but when he tried to submit it the website gave him the message that the operation could not be completed. He pressed the ‘Submit’ command a few more times but every time he got the message that the submission could not be completed.
To establish what the problem was, he called the VAT service and informed an employee what had happened and asked whether the system was down or there was something else he should have done. He would not have been treated with more rudeness if he had asked to sleep with the official’s wife.
The irritating member of the public was condescendingly told there was no such web-service, he did not know what he was talking about and that if he wanted to submit Form 101, he had to go to the VAT service in person and fill it in by hand. The rude official made one concession to our friend – he put him through to his superior.
Polite and helpful, in stark contrast to his subordinate, the manager expressed genuine surprise to hear about the existence of electronic forms. Our friend gave him the web-address so he could check out for himself and after a couple of minutes the startled manager apologised for the inconvenience caused.
He was in charge of the registration service, he said, but did not know the VAT forms were available in electronic format on the internet, as nobody had informed him. Probably because it will take another three years before the government’s programmers arrange for the form to be submitted electronically.
Our friend still had to go to the VAT office, fill in the form by hand, queue at two desks, first for someone to stamp the form and then for someone to enter it into the system.
When e-government goes bad
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Nebula ballot, Goodreads / LibraryThing stats
NB: With Russia's unprovoked murderous assault on Ukraine, I am actively looking at alternative hosts for this journal, preferably those which…
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“Bloodchild”, by Octavia E. Butler; “Press Enter ◼️”, by John Varley; Neuromancer, by William Gibson
These three all won Hugo and Nebula Awards presented in 1985 for work published in 1984. (So the 1985 Hugo, but the 1984 Nebula.)…
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Serenity
Serenity won the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, in 2006 and also the 2005 Nebula for Best Script. There was only one other finalist…
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Nebula ballot, Goodreads / LibraryThing stats
NB: With Russia's unprovoked murderous assault on Ukraine, I am actively looking at alternative hosts for this journal, preferably those which…
-
“Bloodchild”, by Octavia E. Butler; “Press Enter ◼️”, by John Varley; Neuromancer, by William Gibson
These three all won Hugo and Nebula Awards presented in 1985 for work published in 1984. (So the 1985 Hugo, but the 1984 Nebula.)…
-
Serenity
Serenity won the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, in 2006 and also the 2005 Nebula for Best Script. There was only one other finalist…
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