A friend asked me why it would take so long to process the car sale!
Here's a partial description of the process. ALL the foreigners and ALL
the Ethiopians I know who are involved in businesses here have similar
stories to tell -- everyone speaks of the burden and corruption of the
gv't bureaucracy, and many many many tell of treachery, sabotage, and
embezzlement by former biz partners. Thank God there's no embezzling
in my stories.

I think that if you make it through this description, you deserve a
prize. I hope you end up laughing.

In the last few days I've gotten assurances from two Ethiopian friends
that they will come with me to these offices and help me. It's good
that there are two people, given how much time and aggravation will be
involved.

- - - - -
The last thing I tried to do in the capital (last Thurs) was to renew
my business license at the Ministry of Trade. I needed to do that as
part of the process to sell the car.

I had gotten a clearance from the Ministry of Revenue people to allow
me to renew the biz license -- that had taken a couple of days. And why
did it take so long ??? Because the Min of Rev people had lost their
copies of a couple of payroll tax receipts THEY had issued to me. I
had to find, copy, and submit my copies. Then I had to take and
pickup various papers from different offices on different floors (no
elevators) within the building. Employees in four (or was it five?)
different groups had to sign and stamp (rubber) different papers and
make computer entries.

So on Thurs I was back at the Min of Trade. I had gotten the Min of Rev
clearance as I've just described, plus everything else the Min of Trade
people had told me to assemble when I'd gone there before. However when
I got there on Thurs, they told me that I had to renew my Principle
Business Registration License before I could renew my Business license.
That requires some additional documentation. I think have it all.

So, as I had hoped last week, I hope that when I next go to the
capital, I'll get both licenses. That will allow me to continue with a
very-multi step process, which is also required for selling the car. I
can't get up the energy to describe that process in full, but here's
basically what I wrote to my friend. "Will get a lot done" encompasses
so many tasks it is mindboggling.

- - -
My hope is that I will get a lot done on this upcoming trip to AA,
and will reach the stage when I can post and sign a set of corporate
minutes with the Document Authorization and Registration office.

Then other people, including my troublesome and recalcitrant old
business partners, must also go there and sign. Assuming they do not
refuse as they have in the past. Those minutes will allow me to change
business partners (a day or so of work involved there), which will in
turn allow me to post a second set of minutes that will allow me to
reinstate my expired General Managership (expired bec the old partners
refused to ratify the normal extension).

After I am again GM (1-2 days work if it goes smoothly), I can post
(1-2 days of work) the minutes that allow the car to be sold.

Meanwhile, not being GM now, I cannot conduct any actions. Should the
Doc Auth and Reg people not allow me to sign the minutes that allow the
change of biz partners, then all is at a standstill. The hope is that
those minutes were originally written Feb 14 2011, signed by all
parties sometime the following summer (delays were on the part of the
old biz partners) when I was still Gen Mgr. Those minutes were partly
ratified by Doc Auth and Reg, but had then to go Min of Revenues for a
clearance. Getting that clearance took 7 months. Now, the Doc Auth And
Reg people have told me I must produce new, unsigned, copies of the
minutes. So, about the old signatures, including mine, which were done
when I was still GM -- are they totally invalidated, and am I now
unable to complete the process that's taken so long and been so
burdensome?

My lawyer, Tamrat, was supposed to have contacted the old partners
to set their signing process up and to feel them out about signing a
preliminary minutes to reinstate me as GM to forestall the potential
problem described in the preceding paragraph. After three weeks or so
when he avoided me completely -- not returning texts, not answering
calls, I was about to get someone else to call on their phone and
then hand the phone to me, which had worked on another such occasion.
However, this morning he texted me. He'd realized he no longer had a
valid phone number to contact the old biz partners. I see, Tamrat, it
took you three weeks to realize that?

So you see some of the reasons that this is a 3rd-world country?

[Posted in FML 7749]