It's not incompetence, it's malice. They want to restrict travel. The Soviets were big proponents of that, too. Can't have Ivan head off to another village to learn that it, too, is shit when he's heard about all the abundance and prosperity the USSR has, just not in his village. Making travel difficult along with a heavily censored internet is also an easy way to restrict information. Can't have your voter base pack up and leave, either.