After a successful Friday, in which we finished the Kaliti appraisal of the vehicle, DRJ and I were ready to keep things moving in the right direction. So, today, Monday, we returned to the first office near Mexico square (don’t ask me why it’s called that, but Mexico is the main traffic hub in the city). Bypassing the chaos controller, we returned to the lady who we had seen last and she said that she was in fact not the right person to see. However, when we went to the chaos controller, she said that we needed to redo our sales agreement form because we had prematurely signed it. Apparently, we aren’t allowed to sign until some official guy down the line asks us “did you receive full payment for this?” and “did you make full payment for this?” So, we bought another form, filled it out (only in Amharic this time) and worked our way through the various offices we had visited before. Actually, this afternoon was nice because in one office, there was actually a line formed! A real line of people! In another office, paperwork was placed on the official’s desk in a stack with newcomers being put at the bottom – another form of a line. It is so much less stressful to do it that way than the mob scene jockeying for position.
In short, we got the stamp that said that the vehicle has no outstanding fees (Praise God!). Then we got about 4 other stamps from various people who looked at each document we presented. Then, we were told to pay the 2% sales tax, which needed to be paid at any bank within the city. Having anticipated the expense, I had my wad of cash in my pocket and we were able to make that money transfer from the bank across the street. Then, returning to the Mexico government office just 15 minutes before quitting time, our receipt of transfer was approved, we got a few more stamps and marks on our papers as we revisited all the same offices for checks and rechecks. I couldn’t help but notice how many people were involved with our paperwork. Why do three people need to look at the same paperwork and check it off? Well, it could be a remnant of the c0mmunlst government that existed here until the early nineties. C0mmunlsm is all about job creation, having three people doing the job that one could. Or, it could be a new product of democracy with its policy of checks and balances so that nobody has the power to completely sign off on something. Either way, that’s what we face here and today, right around 5:30pm, we were like a pinball bouncing between offices getting the final stamps.
Finally, we were told to enter a totally new office where an obviously tired lady sat behind her small desk. She briefly looked at things, inked up her two stamps and pounded them down on our papers. Holding them out for us to take and motioning toward the door, she said the most beautiful words I could imagine at that moment – cheresachu (translation: you’ve finished)! The sale was complete! I am the official owner of the truck.
That was step 3 of 5. Next is the inspection (step 4) and re-registration (step 5). So, the fun continues.
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