The Power of Paraguayan Bureaucracy

Every country has bureaucracy so I'm not singling out Paraguay here. The pedido system of asking for help from the local government for small community projects is actually pretty straight forward. You create a commission, use a special notebook and write your group's purpose, who is in it and what you plan to do. Then you get a copy of everyone's identification and go and get the "Acta" approved and your commission officially recognized. After that you write up another document asking for the money for your project. This document must justify the project and lay out the costs. Your president, secretary and treasurer also need to sign the document. Then you turn that document in. Eventually you get the money or some portion of it. All in all not so bad.


TODAY, however, was obnoxiously horrendous. It was the culmination of...

 You see it is the new year which means that I was probably going to need to renew the documentation of the commissions.  I knew this, so when I went to the gobernacion to see if I could formally turn in the requests for funding for various projects, I made sure to ask about the need renew my documents. The secretary downstairs said that it might not be necessary. Upon meeting with the governor himself he said it was necessary. I would have to go back to my municipality, renew the commission there, then return to the gobernacion where the commission would be renewed for the gobernacion request and then we could ask for money. At this point I asked whether I would have to regather all my documents, get new copies of things or remake new documents. I was pretty sure I would need to. He assured me that all I needed to do was bring the old documents to the municipality and they would renew them.

You gotta love it when the gobernacion reassures you that you don't need new documents to renew your commission status for the new year. You don't believe them and ask them again. The governor himself tells you its all good. You then ride your bike to the ruta take a bus to the muni town and get told you need all new documents.... I ____ this country.