Garcia: School maxi taxi drivers will be paid

President of the Association for Maxi Taxi School Transport Rodney Ramlogan says the Ministry of Education still owes more than $5 million to drivers.

But Education Minister Anthony Garcia expressed surprise on Thursday that the drivers were still owed money. He promised to investigate the claim with the aim of bringing relief.

"We have been working assiduously to ensure payments are made," Garcia told Newsday, giving a commitment also that once claims are validated by the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC), steps will be taken to honour the invoices.

Garcia said sometimes the system for presenting invoices to the PTSC for verification is not properly followed and this creates problems.

In November, Garcia reported that more than $4 million had been paid to the drivers.

Ramlogan said Thursday, he hopes the ministry would release the balance of the funds before the end of 2019.

He called on drivers to spend their money wisely over the holiday because he does not know what will happen in the new year.

“The last two Christmases, we received no money from September until late January," he said. "Although they (drivers) would have some kind of relief to go to the grocery, they have to be very careful how they spend. When the school term opens in January they would need to have money to ensure their maxi taxis are roadworthy and have proper tyres.”

He said the association is waiting to meet with the minister.

“Some of the funds were released," he explained. "On Monday, PTSC released a payment for one more fortnight. They had given us three fortnights' payments for the term so far. This amounted to approximately $2.5 million.

"But what is happening also, the Tobago drivers only received (payment for) the month of September and have not received any more money after that payment.”

Ramlogan explained the school term in Trinidad has seven fortnights and a week, while Tobago has five fortnights and a week.

He said the government now owes Trinidad drivers for three fortnights and a week, while the money owed to Tobago drivers is for five fortnights and a week.

“It is on a fortnightly basis we submit our claims. Every month it is estimated at $3 million the Government has for us.

He lamented, "The minister has not responded to none of our claims, even after we protested.

"Normally PTSC sends the documents to the ministry, then the forms would be processed. Basically we are waiting for the forms to be processed.”