This is in response to Clive Turpin’s letter ‘LMRA to help…'(GDN, August 31). Is Mr Turpin serious about his comments on the LMRA?

You say that companies and expatriates should have taken the time to follow instructions.

I say that LMRA should have had assigned officers to every company here in Bahrain available at their premises so that they could keep an eye and help them cleanse or manage their data.

I say this because LMRA charges BD10 per month (not yearly) for every expat who is employed.

Where are the millions of dinars going?

Don’t tell me that LMRA needs this just to ‘manage’ the data per month!!

There was a figure recently that the expat work force is close to or above 300,000.

Let’s say that 200,000 have registered, it comes to two million. So where is all this going?

This could have been given to labourers to improve their living conditions, but, no, it has not been and it’s a fact which most people know that some companies are deducting BD10 from the employees’ salaries.

Mr Turpin, yes the location is clean and fresh because it’s making instant cash.

Why does LMRA often emphasise on checking your ‘status’ on the web?, employees who earn BD40 a month neither have the cash nor the knowledge to check their status on the Internet.

If you survey thoroughly (Asians especially) you will find that LMRA employees are not that helpful,.

I have seen Asians being told to check their status on the Internet (very rudely).

They come to your premises and question you like you are guilty of harbouring terrorists (personal experience), they lack courtesy.

Mr Turpin has no complaints because probably he’s from the West or Far East getting paid a good four-figure salary with benefits.

Wake up and come to the real world Mr Turpin, think about the people who earn a two-figure salary.

Rizwan Shah

* An LMRA spokesman said: “The reader is accusing us of not being courteous enough and has mentioned that our employees were not that helpful with his query. We need to further investigate his case and urge him to call or e-mail us with specific details and dates.

“We take customer service very seriously and help everyone equally through all our channels (customer service desk, call centre, e-mail and e-services counters).

“Our employees work tirelessly round-the-clock to solve any issues as soon as they can, but we cannot have one employee for every company or every expat in Bahrain, that is just not possible with the existing number of expats and registered CR’s!

“We answer more than 800 calls and 100 e-mails per day, serve between 250 and 500 customers through the customer service and e-Services counters, we deal with a lot of inconsistent information because some employers were not fully co-operating with us.

“Given our very large customer base and the number of applications that we get every day etc … we may have our share of human errors but we are keen to correct them.

“On the other hand deducting the BD10 monthly charges from the employee’s salaries is illegal and if you know if any employer doing that, please report it to LMRA as soon as possible.

“As to where does the money goes, this has been a very frequent question that has been answered one too many times (80 per cent to the Labour Fund and 20 per cent to the government’s general budget.),

“More information is available on our website and the F.A.Q’s section, our contact number is 17 50 60 55, e-mail: lmra@lmra.gov.bh”