[fab13n]

there's a problem between Bob and the bureaucracy. whether it's a Bob problem or a bureaucratic problem is left as an exercise to the reader.

However, I'd be thoroughly unsurprised if Bob happened to be on the autism spectrum. And autistic people are counter-intuitive but very easy to handle: force yourself to be extremely explicit, and to stick to first-degree in your exchanges to a point that seems ridiculous (to you). That's it, really.