Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has an­nounced that all pri­vate Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route pass­es cur­rent­ly in cir­cu­la­tion, to­talling 625, will be of­fi­cial­ly re­called by Ju­ly 1, this year.

Peo­ple wish­ing to ob­tain a bus route pass will now be re­quired to reap­ply and sub­mit all rel­e­vant qual­i­fi­ca­tions and sup­port­ing doc­u­ments to be re­con­sid­ered for route ac­cess. 

“All these let­ter pass­es, we will re­call them, all 625 of them will be re­called and per­sons can then reap­ply. Let’s see your cri­te­ria and why you get it.”

Dur­ing yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net brief­ing at the Ca­bil­do Build­ing in Port-of-Spain, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the de­ci­sion fol­lows con­cerns that a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of these pass­es were is­sued with­out prop­er doc­u­men­ta­tion or ver­i­fi­ca­tion.

“These are pri­vate let­ter pass­es that the min­is­ter sign a piece of pa­per and give it to you and when you get it, it costs the State mon­ey to give you this pass to use the bus route.”

The Prime Min­is­ter em­pha­sized the need for stricter over­sight and ac­count­abil­i­ty in the pub­lic trans­port sys­tem.

“Many of these have been is­sued with­out prop­er doc­u­men­ta­tion. In some cas­es we don’t even have the names, we don’t even have li­cence plate num­bers, we don’t have po­si­tions of ti­tles, we don’t have af­fil­i­ate agen­cies. In many in­stances, some peo­ple get more than one of these spe­cial pass­es, so when you give the hus­band, you give the wife and the chil­dren. It is a fam­i­ly busi­ness, friends and fam­i­ly”

The move is part of a broad­er Gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tive aimed at clean­ing up the trans­porta­tion sec­tor, en­sur­ing on­ly qual­i­fied op­er­a­tors are grant­ed ac­cess to des­ig­nat­ed routes.

“It costs 1.2 mil­lion dol­lars per year but they not pay­ing for that, but the maxi fel­las who mak­ing a liv­ing and a liveli­hood have to pay this.”

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so sought to name peo­ple who pos­sessed the bus route pass, in­clud­ing Je­niece Scott, Sheila Ram­per­sad, Ricky Raghu­nanan and oth­er mem­bers of the Raghu­nanan fam­i­ly and promised to pro­vide the en­tire list to the me­dia.

Coun­cil­lor Scott, who rep­re­sents the dis­trict of Cal­vary in Ari­ma, took to X (for­mer­ly known as Twit­ter) ask­ing why was her name the first to be called.

“Out of the 625 peo­ple, I’m the first one they call? Oh gosh, it was tem­po­rary. It’s ex­pir­ing in Sep­tem­ber any­way.”

Min­is­ter of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion, Eli Za­k­our, said the cost per let­ter pass is $145. A labour fee al­so has to be fac­tored in for each pass, ac­cord­ing to the min­is­ter.