Havana, Sunday November 1, 2009. Year 13 / Number 306 Following the Money A CubaNews translation by Giselle Gil. Edited by Walter Lippmann. Specialists and popular analysts agree that "the cash has to be removed from the bus" to solve the problem of public transportation collection. Many still wonder the reason why other collection methods that avoid using cash, such as cards or tickets, are not put into effect. Yuri González, Collection director of the Transportation Company in the Province, affirmed that they have evaluated other alternatives, but because they are very expensive they are not able to implement them now. The truth is the current system makes it easy to avoid paying the fare and it is urgent we find another one. Today in the city a million people use public transportation daily; the fares collected do not correspond with this estimate. The money collection box – a widespread method since we introduced the new buses that don’t need conductors – are also vulnerable. Sometimes the driver collects the money in his hand, although passengers should deposit the money in the box slot. This type of violation has been detected; also, not in all ‘colecturías’ (places where money is received and counted) suitable conditions exist. These collecturias are supervised by the Transportation Ministry General Security and Protection Agency (AGESP). There are six of them belonging to Metrobus and five others in urban bus terminals. After a year and a half's experience, they resolved to create a general collection center, which is being built at the moment. The project’s objective is to concentrate security and collection checkup in one place. This will make surveillance and real time control through monitors easier and will guarantee its distribution to bank branches. "We emphasize organization. Coordination with TRASVAL is already being made. They have solid knowledge of this kind of work and have helped us in the preparation process", assured us Miguel Mendoza, director of Technical Services, Values Transfer and Colecturías of the AGESP. Something worries specialists. Angel Cancio González, Security and Protection sub director of this entity said, "We find more and more foreign currency coins, broken notes and a large number of objects in the money boxes of the buses. This affects the good development we seek to accomplish with the investment project carried out to improve urban transportation." To give us an idea of the problem, they offered us data. For example, In the week from the 3rd to the 9th of September this year, reports from Metrobus colecturias found a total of 6,016 one peso notes cut in half or more pieces, 3, 345 deteriorated CUP and 697 assorted objects (watch batteries, washers, etc.). These are palpable examples of social indiscipline. This type of systematic behavior also implies, excessive delay when counting the cash, loss of notes, and a loss in revenue corresponding to the workers of cash deposits and terminals, because their salaries depend on the collection. There are also other damages that in the end affect our country’s economy. http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2009/11/01/nacional/artic03.html |
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La Habana, domingo 1 de noviembre de 2009. Año 13 / Número 306 Tras la ruta del dinero
Especialistas
y analistas populares, ven en "bajar el dinero de la guagua", la
solución del problema de la recaudación en el transporte público de
pasajeros. Para muchos sigue siendo una interrogante el porqué no se
pone en vigor otro sistema más preventivo como el empleo de tarjetas o
boletos que evite el trasiego monetario. Yuri González, director de
Pasaje de la Dirección Provincial de Transporte, afirmó que evalúan
otras alternativas, las que por su alto costo en estos momentos no se
está en condiciones de aplicar. |