Pandemonium broke out at the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) headquarters in South Surrah on the first working day, reports Al-Seyassah daily.
The daily added, prior to PACI opened the doors at 9:00 am the crowd looked orderly as the visitors stood in a queue but as soon as the doors opened everyone rushed to the door to be the first in.
The officials had no option but to call the police to organize entry in an orderly manner. The crowding was because PACI remained closed for four months due to the outbreak of the virus. Reliable sources said, it was mere confusion because there are those who had booked appointments electronically, others unaware of such a system and then were others who had rushed to the PACI to receive their IDs without ensuring the availability of the card since in many cases the cards were not prepared because the government working had come to a standstill following the outbreak of the virus.
Director of Public Relations and Information Department at PACI Ahmed Al-Sabr assured PACI has introduced set precautionary measures to ensure the smooth and easy flow of work, whether for the visitors or the employees. “We have set only Saturday of each week to book appointments electronically for Sunday until Thursday, because experience shows in other government agencies the appointments electronically have helped complete a number for the next 3 months, so setting the Saturday every week to book appointments will benefit the visitor and give more opportunities.”
He explained the authority has set for itself a goal to complete 2,500 transactions per day, including 1,800 to receive cards and the rest for other transactions that require the visitor to attend in person. He said procedures were taken to evaluate things during the first week and are subject to increase daily according to the commitment of the visitors to commitment to health procedures and appointments, and at the same time we aim to prevent any occurrence of problems inside the building, whether problems related to crowding or fears of infection with the coronavirus.
The working hours, he said, will be from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm for all transactions. Al-Sabr indicated that there are transactions that can be completed electronically without the need to come to the authority through the authority’s website, such as renewing and change of picture, completing the data of a Kuwaiti child, non- Kuwaiti and registering the first time domestic workers (Article 20) and registering the joining of the family the first time (Article 22) in addition to registration for the first time Articles 17 and 18.
Source : Arab Times
