Mexico awards cash for worst government red-tape sagas reported

MEXICO CITY — Ana Maria Calvo has fought unsuccessfully for seven months to correct her husband’s name on her child’s birth certificate.
When she burst into tears after standing in line for hours one day, a bureaucrat told her he didn’t help crying women.

For her red-tape horror story, Calvo is one of three winners in a government contest to find Mexico’s worst examples of bureaucracy and corruption.
The award is for 100,000 peso ($7,500) and it was presented by President Felipe Calderon.
He says Mexico’s epic red tape keeps small businesses from getting off the ground, encourages bribes and corruption and drives off investment.
Bribes move about 10 per cent of all government transactions — including those to obtain construction licenses, vehicle inspection stickers and street-vending permits.
Calderon thought up the contest in September as part of his administration’s efforts to streamline government requirements.
The goal is to reduce the federal government’s more than 4,200 bureaucratic forms to 3,000 by the time Calderon leaves office in 2012.
A citizens’ panel shuffled through more than 20,000 entries to choose the three worst bureaucratic nightmares, one each at the federal, state and municipal level.
Civil servants were not punished, but Calderon promised his government would try to fix problems recounted by contestants.