Former transport minister: Vehicle Management Corporationshould not be state-owned

Former minister of transport Stephen Cadiz said the Vehicle Management Corporation of TT (Vmcott) should not be a state-owned agency.

In a phone interview with Newsday on Wednesday, Cadiz said the company was run as a typical government agency where other ministries would come to have their vehicles serviced.

On Wednesday, Parliament's Public Accounts (Enterprise) Committee met to address the audited financial statements of Vmcott.

Cadiz said Vmcott has always had issues with receivables, even when he was minister from 2013.

“Really and truly, they just wouldn’t pay, because it was government-owned. They had millions out on receivables and there was no payment.

"Vmcott was always running with a stranglehold on their cash because the government was not funding them at 100 per cent and therefore their hands were tied, more or less, the whole time.”

If it was a private garage not receiving payment, he said, Vmcott would have stopped operations.

He said he considered whether it was an agency that the government should be operating, adding there were other service providers that could have done the work, possibly at a much cheaper cost.

The former UNC MP for Chaguanas East said at the time of his tenure, the company had already been restructured and his administration was not in a position to do another restructuring. Cadiz was minister between 2010 and 2015.

“I am a firm believer that many of the agencies that the government has at its disposal should not be state-owned and Vmcott is one of them.”

He said the company always had cashflow problems.

“Cash is absolutely critical to running any business. If you have bills every month with no one paying those expenses other than what the State is giving you on an annual basis, there is nothing else to invest in equipment or software to get your agency efficient. It is never-ending story with agencies like that; always strapped for cash.”

In the committee meeting, Vmcott CEO Natasha Prince said the company owed over $2.3 million in statutory deductions.

Prince, who is yet to submit the full amount to the committee, said it owed National Insurance $1.246 million and owes $1.1 million
in PAYE and $45,350 in health surcharge.

Acting Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Works and Transport Dhanmattee Ramdath said in fiscal 2020, the company accumulated losses of $91 million.

Ramdath said Vmcott’s 2020-2025 business plan includes restructuring in order to reduce operating costs.