Transport Minister Devant Maharaj says when he became chairman of the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) it was an inefficient state run company where over half of the buses were in the garage.Maharaj, who was PTSC chairman before becoming Minister of Transport, painted a picture of a state-run entity that was in shambles."When I assumed office in November 2011, out of a fleet of 420 buses only 192 was running. I was approached to implement a GPS programme and I told them I don't need GPS, I know where the buses are, they are parked up in the garage. Before we could implement a GPS system, we need to get them on the road," he said.He gave the feature address yesterday at the Project Management Institute (PMI) Southern Caribbean Conference (SCC) 6th Biennial International Project Management Conference held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port-of-Spain.Maharaj said he vowed to turn around PTSC's operations and make it efficient.
"When I became chairman of PTSC, I told myself it must become the most efficient state enterprise in the country if not the region and that's the sort of vision I had," he said.He added that employees were disgruntled and morale was low."I took a review of the company's operations. At PTSC, staff morale was at an all time low and staff turn over was at an all time high. The company was haemorrhaging staff and money with no tangible technology and development. This led to frustrated and disenchanted workers leading to frustrated and disenchanted commuters," he said.He said it was almost as if standards and procedures did not exist at PTSC."There was no specific plans for revenue generation. There existed no documented standards, systems and processes for operations. Upon my arrival one could not produce a recruitment and Human Resource policy manual. These were just some of the glaring anomalies that existed," he said.He advised it is important that companies put employees first."I recently told Caribbean Airlines staff, planes are iron and steel and glass but all times we must focus on the humans in the organisation," he said.He added when he was at PTSC, all employees were made to feel as part of the company.
"Derelict buses that occupied valuable real estate were moved out to allow parking for employees where for a long time they had to park on streets of Port-of-Spain where they were exposed to criminal elements. Employees were free to visit the office of the chairman and all this was to show staff they were now a valuable resource in the company," he said.
