I arrived at the new Barquisimeto center office in El Ujano at 6.45 in the morning expecting to see a long queue. There was indeed a long queue for Venezuelan passports and a much smaller one for foreigners. The first surprise was the amount of Chinese nationals who turned up and the second, that only 15 tickets would be handed out. Among those in the queue were Colombian, Italian, Lebanese, US and Spanish nationals, apart from myself of course ... Irish.

At a roundabout 8.15 a.m., the official in charge of handing out tickets came along, reviewing each case making sure that all the documents were in order. She is to be commended for her calm and even-handed attitude ... unlike the high-handed and arrogant tone one was used to under the old Onidex.

• One thing I did learn was that the Onidex-Saime office only allows four Chinese at any session, indicating the amount of Chinese that must turn up every day to get their papers fixed.

We were then ordered to enter an enclosed space with chairs to sit on and wait our turn. It was a bit of a long wait alright because I was able to see other officials bringing in passports and papers to be signed or checked and members of the public walking in the supposedly restricted area cool as cucumbers.

On being called up stairs and into the office, I found that the "morenita" who handed out the tickets in the morning was the official who checked the papers again and handed out a receipt for the passports to be picked up in eight days time. Another official wrote the details down in two books (in my case), to stamp all my documents from the old passport into the new one and secondly, to update my resident visa. There were about four officers in the room and if there is any complaint, it is that room is too small and crowded.

I landed at the CANTV office one afternoon last week at 2 o'clock to find a big queue of people already inside. After being given a ticket I had to stand until the number appeared on the screen ... snd I can tell you that the process was very slow indeed. I must say that employees at the counters appeared to be still in siesta mode, even though the air-conditioning was blasting away so much that some employees were wearing anoraks.

There were two rows of seats -- not enough for all the people standing -- among whom were a good few senior citizens. After waiting more than an hour, the numbers suddenly started flying and when I approached the counter for my turn, the employee almost turned me back, saying I had missed my turn, despite the fact that other officials had left their numbers on the screen for more than two minutes. The same employee was not very helpful ... or client-friendly to say the least. Once I got the receipt confirming the opening of the phone service, I was not told when the phone would be installed. Just wait!

• In my book, SAIME in Barquisimeto provides a better service and caters for people better than the nationalized CANTV does, which raises several questions regarding staff attitudes and training.

CANTV customer service certainly needs better trained staff, if they want to compete with the private sector. I was later informed that staff at SAIME had been trained in customer service techniques in Cuba ... and it shows.

I don't know who's in charge of CANTV's customer service in Barquisimeto, but I didn't see any supervisor making the rounds during the afternoon to ensure a speedy and efficient service, since some of the people on the counters saw less clients than others and were not pulling their weight.

A last comment: basically a repeat of President Chavez' warning that for Socialism to work. it must be seen to be working and efficient.

At CANTV I couldn't see Socialism at work...

http://www.vheadline.com/patrick