Carlos Burgo, former Deputy, Ex-Minister and Ex-Governor of the BCV tells the adventures of a frustrated trip between Praia and Brava

Today it was my turn to experience the disorganization and poor service at CV Interilhas. Once the decision was made to travel to my island, Brava, I contacted the maritime transport service concessionaire to arrange the trip. Because, normally, I travel with my vehicle, it was only possible to find a place for two weeks later, on the 3rd of February, given the insufficient frequency of trips on the line.

On January 21, tickets were purchased. Almost a week later, on the 26th of that month, I unexpectedly received the following SMS message: “Dear passenger, for operational reasons your Santiago/Brava trip from 02/03 has been changed to 02/04 at 08:00 am, please arrive at the pier at 06:00. Thanks". Operational reasons that cannot be overcome in a week can only be a euphemism for not having to recognize the critical situation the dealership is going through!!! Shortly after, I receive a phone call wanting to confirm that I had received the message. I thanked them for their attention and asked when I should be at the pier since I was carrying the vehicle. Having informed that it was a personal vehicle, I was told that I should be on the pier at 6:00 am, that is, two hours before. Today, the day of the trip, with my usual punctuality, I showed up for services at ENAPOR even before 6:00 am.

After half an hour, as the service was still closed, I went to the boat, “Dona Tututa”, where the duty officer, to my astonishment, informed me that the car must have been delivered to the warehouses yesterday. Upon my insistence that it was probably a mistake by the company, that duty officer referred me to the duty officer who, in turn, with disrespectful and unacceptable disregard, told me that I should speak with the duty officer. The duty officer had the audacity to tell me that anyway they had too much cargo and nothing could be done!!! In my five and a half decades of travel between Brava and Praia, I went through countless difficulties and countless adventures, often dictated by the limitations of the means then in existence.

I confess, however, that I have never experienced such disorganization, disregard and lack of respect for passengers. Faced with the inconvenience of a frustrated trip, I was invaded by a deep sadness for the state of things in my country on the way back home. All the more so given the shortage of adequate equipment, with a godmother's fight between the concessionaire and the Government, and government officials announcing the completion of the renegotiation of the concession, the privatization project whose financier, the World Bank, has been expressing serious reservations with regard to the sectoral policies of the current Government in terms of transport, it has just launched a consultancy tender to study the situation of the concession and assess the need and present proposals for a possible renegotiation. Regrettably, in the current context, improvements are not in sight, quite the contrary, everything points to a continuous degradation of the service. It pains me to see the damage that the current deficit in maritime connections is causing to the development of my island, which depends so much on its emigrant community. The need to fight to resolve the situation prevents my sadness and heartache from adding discouragement.