Long lines snaked around the licensing office in Port-of-Spain yesterday as people waited to be served by the severely-understaffed office. Complaints about long lines and extensive waiting periods at the licensing office are not new. So much so, early this year president of the Pre-owned Automotive Dealers Association, Inshan Ishmael, called for the removal of Transport Commissioner Reuben Cato.
At that time, Ishmael said 50,000 documents had been found to be missing from the licensing office. Transport Minister Devant Maharaj yesterday refrained from answering whether or not there was any truth to the allegations. "I would have to check the audit to see if anything was reported missing," Maharaj said.
At the office on Wrightson Road yesterday, only one cashier was available to serve the long queues. Everyone the T&T Guardian spoke to seemed to have complaints, with not one person in the building being able to give a positive account of an experience with the service at the office.
"This is and has always been ridiculous," one young woman (name not given) complained. "Firstly, when I came here before eight o'clock this morning and had to line up and wait till they opened. "Then when they opened, I was told they only see 20 people per day, so 20 people got numbers and everybody else goes home and hopes for luck another day."
The same woman explained she had come to the office to get the certified copy for her car so that she could get an inspection sticker. "They can't find the certified copy. I have been waiting here all day and they are telling me they can't find the copy.
"So when the police pull me over and ask about my inspection sticker, you think if I tell them about the problems in Licensing they will care?" she asked. Dave Jagroo, 34, said he bought his car from a hotel in 2009, and showed a receipt for $4,000.
"Up until now the certified copy still shows the hotel's name. I have been in and out, and they just send you in circles," Jagroo said. He believed that the situation at the licensing office was worsening. "It could be because more cars are on the road, it could be a lot of things.
"But what's certain is that it isn't getting better," he said. In a brief telephone interview, Maharaj was quick to admit that the licensing office had many problems. He laid the blame, however, at the feet of the Director of Public Administration (DPA). "Licensing Office is short-staffed. We have written the DPA on numerous occasions in order to get people to fill over 100 vacancies, and have gotten no response," said Maharaj.
"There are a lot of challenges in getting the bureaucracy of the Public Service to start moving," he said. He said many of the changes proposed to make the licensing office more efficient hinged on legislation. "There are a lot of factors involved, contracts to be renewed, buildings for motor vehicle access centres and updated versions of licensing offices need to be built," Maharaj said.
When asked about the computerisation of licensing offices, Maharaj could not comment. Maharaj said there were presently about eight licensing offices but added that plans had been made for eight more to be built before the ministries were split. He advised that transformation of the Licensing Division to the Motor Vehicle Administration had been on hold since the Transport Ministry separated from the Ministry of Works last year.
At a handing-over ceremony for a newly-renovated licensing office in Chaguanas last August, Warner made a plea with Maharaj to complete phase two of the transformation of the licensing division by adding ten motor vehicle access centres. Phase one, the newly-designed driver's permits, had been completed under Warner's tenure as Transport Minister.
