Foren­sic in­ves­ti­ga­tors have seized doc­u­ments from the San Fer­nan­do Li­cens­ing Of­fice as their probe in­to cor­rup­tion con­tin­ues. Trans­port Min­is­ter Chan­dresh Shar­ma con­firmed yes­ter­day that doc­u­ments were seized at the de­part­ment's Pleas­antville of­fices. He was speak­ing to re­porters at the fi­nal leg of his tour of San Fer­nan­do fa­cil­i­ties un­der his port­fo­lio. Shar­ma said the seizure of the doc­u­ments was in­dica­tive of the on­go­ing probe. "The fact that they did that (seized the doc­u­ments) this week, and I am the min­is­ter this week, means that it is an on­go­ing thing to in­quire in­to, in­ves­ti­gate in­to any frac­ture of the law," he said. "As a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, I have tak­en an oath of of­fice to make sure that hap­pens, since there must be due process." The min­is­ter in­di­cat­ed that if any­one is found guilty of wrong­do­ing, they will be re­moved, even if it in­volves se­nior of­fi­cers in charge of the Li­cens­ing Of­fice. He lament­ed how­ev­er, that "every­thing is not go­ing to change overnight."

The min­is­ter did not dis­close what in­for­ma­tion the doc­u­ments con­tained or why they were seized. The T&T Guardian un­der­stands that foren­sic in­ves­ti­ga­tors went to the Li­cens­ing Of­fice on Fri­day and seized the doc­u­ments.

Shar­ma said he vis­it­ed the of­fice at the re­quest of the Trans­port Com­mis­sion­er. He said li­cens­ing is al­most an es­sen­tial ser­vice and he and his team will look at all ar­eas for im­prove­ment. Shar­ma said he has been en­gag­ing in dis­cus­sions with his staff to de­ter­mine how much mon­ey can be al­lo­cat­ed in the short term to be­gin re­me­di­al work. The min­is­ter said con­sid­er­a­tion is be­ing giv­en to re­build­ing the en­tire fa­cil­i­ty and tem­porar­i­ly re­lo­cat­ing staff. He said, how­ev­er, the Trans­port Com­mis­sion­er and of­fi­cers may have a dif­fer­ent view, since they may want to stay and build at the same time. "We are go­ing to ex­plore all op­tions," Shar­ma said.