'Fitness' checks and changes

Sheldon Williams, Gleaner Writer

Greater attention will be paid to accountability and transparency at the Island Traffic Authority (ITA), as part of efforts to improve its operations.

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, Dr Morais Guy, said very few complaints about corruption have been made against examiners at facilities islandwide.

"Fortunately, very few people - if any - have made reports as it relates to that which have come to our attention. The matters that are before the court are consequence of audits that have been carried out within one of our units in the ITA. Based on what has been found, they have been passed on to the police to make a determination," he said.

Nonetheless, Guy argued that "In every sphere of the Jamaican life, people will always find an opportunity to make a quick buck. Whether that particular perceived perception is as warranted as alleged to be in the ITA is yet to be seen. But whether it exists or not, part of our focus is to see that, even if it exists, it is terminated."

He refuses to be swayed by unsubstantiated claims. "I am evidence based, so I cannot go and say it has happened in one of my depots ... At this present stage, it is innocent until proven guilty. That's the law of the country and, until that changes, I cannot change," Guy added.

The ITA recently employed an audit and compliance manager, who has been tasked with ensuring that the operating standards and financial operations at all 14 depots are satisfactory. A Standard Operating Procedure Manual has also been created, which will streamline how the depots carry out their daily functions.

On March 28, detectives attached to MOCA, members of the Mobile Reserve and the Flying Squad carried out an operation in Kingston and St Thomas. A motor vehicle examiner and two other men were held. All three men are charged with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, while one is also facing additional charges of making a false declaration, contrary to Section 18 of the Road Traffic Act, and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The men are on bail after they appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court on April 1.

The ITA has proposed changes to the procedure for examining vehicles for certificate of fitness that will take effect on May 19. Director at the ITA, Ludlow Powell, explained that it is part of efforts to increase accountability.

"What we are trying to do is to further streamline our operations and to bring further accountability to the process, so starting in May we will now ask every single individual that takes a motor vehicle in for a fitness examination to bring a valid driver's licence," Powell said.

He said the ITA will store vital information from those licences in their own database for future reference. "That vital information will be taken - the name of the person, the TRN and the expiration date on that driver's licence. We will keep that for our audit and record purposes to be used at a later time," Powell said.

He added: "All it is doing is helping us to facilitate and to develop patterns and traceability and more accountability than we now have. The hope is, over time, this will become the norm and it will greatly reduce irregularities."

Powell emphasised that the legitimacy of drivers will be determined under this new approach. "Who are these people who are taking vehicles to the depot to be tested? Right now, the system is for you to take in your vehicle documents, but we don't know who that person is," he said.