Queuing up to queue

At the WSC office in Valletta, to do a simple water meter transfer procedure one has to go through the following bizarre process.

After a brief verbal exchange with the door person, you are politely asked to wait in line outside the office building, until the waiting queue time inside is of about an hour or so.

After a long time and when your turn finally comes up, this same person at this same main door would then give you a paper chit with a number on it, so that an hour or so later your number is displayed and then, finally, you would be able to be seen.

I have tried very hard to understand what is the reasoning behind such a dim procedure. And I still cannot come to grips as to why one should be made to wait in order to be given a chit that gives you a right to be able to wait again. Why not simply be given a queue number in the first place so that you would be able to do other errands before your magic queuing number is displayed. Confused? I was.