Maxi taxi concessionaires have been given the assurance that they will receive a portion of their outstanding payments on Tuesday.
The promise was made on Thursday by Education Minister Anthony Garcia at a press conference, following a meeting he held with president of the T&T Maxi Taxi Association Rodney Ramlogan and general manager of the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) Bashir Mohammed at the Ministry of Education headquarters, Port-of-Spain.
The meeting was held to iron out late payments to 320 drivers who provide transport to 30,000 primary and secondary students across the country. The drivers claim they are owned millions for their services.
For over two years, Ramlogan said the drivers who transport students to and from 180 schools have been facing challenges with late payments.
Garcia assured that from September the processing of the drivers’ claims by PTSC will be fast-tracked, as they intend to use technology, rather than the current manual system of verifying the claims.
Mohammed assured that late payments “will be a thing of the past.”
One feature of the technology is that each student using the maxi taxi service will be tracked.
Chief Education Officer Harrilal Seecharan said a significant part of the delay had to do with inconsistencies or errors with the claim forms.
Also, some schools signed off the claim forms late.
If all goes well with the new system, Garcia said the actual payments to drivers will result in a number of factors.
“One is the release of funds. We have to apply to the Ministry of Finance for the releases and when we get permission to cut the cheques then those payments will be made. But we have been assured that the process itself will be done as quickly as possible. The drivers would not have to wait any long period for payments,” Garcia insisted.
Ramlogan admitted concessionaires are owned “a couple of millions” since last November.
In January, Ramlogan had estimated the outstanding figure at $3.2 million.
“We are hopeful of a smooth transition now,” Ramlogan said.
Garcia said the ministry’s director of accounts promised that when school reopens next Tuesday “some of these payments will be in the bank accounts of the maxi taxi drivers.”
He said the ministry wants to ensure there are no hiccups in transporting the students.