Editor,

I wish to respond to a letter that appeared in The NewTimes of February, 9 titled, "Accessing Visas online has helped us” by Alice Morrison.  I visited the Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration, last week, and I was really impressed by the new developments there.

Their customer service is really very impressive. First, I would like to appeal to other institutions to learn a lesson or two from the Immigration office.

I am not even surprised that in May, 1 2010, the department received a Certificate of appreciation for being the best Institution in Customer Care and Service Delivery in the country.

I used to visit their offices in Kacyiru in 2004 and the work then was slow. We used to wait for many hours because most work was being done manually. But after introducing ICT applications, everything is now fast. Imagine, I received an SMS, yesterday, inviting me to pick my passport!

I also believe ICT will help fight corruption since officials at Immigration rarely meet their clients physically.

Eugene Mugisha
Rwamagana