An­na-Lisa Paul

Op­er­a­tions at the Li­cens­ing Di­vi­sion of the Min­istry of Trans­port on Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, re­turned to nor­mal yes­ter­day af­ter it was closed for two days be­cause of prob­lems with the air-con­di­tion­ing sys­tem. Trans­port Com­mis­sion­er Reuben Cato con­firmed that work had been dis­rupt­ed. On Tues­day, a sign was post­ed on the door, in­form­ing the pub­lic of the prob­lem, af­ter which staff mem­bers were sent home. Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Cato said: "The prob­lem was rec­ti­fied to­day (yes­ter­day) and work re­sumed as nor­mal."

Ques­tioned about the plans to de­vel­op the di­vi­sion, Cato re­vealed that a mul­ti-mil­lion-dol­lar con­tract will be signed with the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment with­in the next three weeks to com­put­erise the Li­cens­ing Di­vi­sion. The first phase of the project end­ed in June last year. Cato said the di­vi­sion will be moved to Ca­roni as the sec­ond phase is rolled out, dur­ing which a mod­ern and new sys­tem will be un­veiled. He said: "We will al­so have dai­ly au­dits of all trans­ac­tions tak­ing place so I am con­fi­dent that 99.9 per cent of at­tempts by per­sons to en­gage in cor­rupt prac­tices will be de­tect­ed and dealt with im­me­di­ate­ly." A spe­cial task force was set up on April 6 to probe cor­rupt prac­tices in the di­vi­sion, with the aim of se­cur­ing ar­rests, charges and con­vic­tions.