High time we addressed the courier problem

According to a news item titled “Crackdown on local courier postmen”, some 30 private firms registered as courier companies are engaged in distributing letters within the country, even though the Postal Department holds the monopoly on the distribution of letters.

The Post & Telecommunications Ministry Secretary is quoted as saying that the “Postal Department plans to take legal action against such companies and has referred the matter to the Attorney General”, but in the same breath says the contrary: “In the long term the department and the ministry are looking into the possibility of regularising the work of these companies.”

The Post Office Ordinance succinctly states: “Where Posts or Postal Communications are established, the government shall have the exclusive privilege of conveying by post from one place to another, all letters (including postcards and packets) and also performing other incidental services of receiving, collecting, sending, dispatching and delivering all letters and that any person other than an officer of the Post Office is expressly forbidden to collect, convey or carry letters for delivery to the addressees.”

According to the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English, “courier” is defined as: 1. A person who is paid to attend to details of travel (buying tickets, arranging for hotels etc); 2. A messenger carrying news or important government papers.”

So, according to the dictionary definition, carrying letters for delivery to the addressees is manifestly extraneous to the work of a courier.

These illegal courier companies have been flourishing with impunity for far too long, obviously because of the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities concerned. These companies cannot be allowed to continue operating in breach of the Post Office Ordinance and deny the government its legitimate revenue by way of postage prepaid on letters and other postal articles. The so-called courier companies should cease to exist pronto. Instead of looking into the possibility of regularising the illegal work of these illegal companies, the Secretary to the Ministry and the Postmaster General should terminate all existing so-called courier companies and put paid to the matter, regardless of what influence the owners of these courier companies may wield.

By P. Herbert Mendis, Boossa