THA infrastructure secretary demands: Remove Trinidadian licensing officers from Tobago

Remove Trinidadian licensing officers from Tobago. This is the demand THA Secretary of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development Trevor James has made to Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan, amid a dispute over a recent road traffic exercise in Tobago, in which the Chief Secretary's wife was stopped for driving without a permit.

James told Sinanan in a letter, dated April 19, that the presence of licensing officers in Tobago without collaboration "or even the common courtesy of informing my division," was an affront to his authority, to the THA and the people of Tobago.

"This situation therefore constrains me to request that you act with expedition to remove those officers who have been here in Tobago over the last fortnight, and over whom this matter has arisen; and to further admonish that your ministry resists any further inclination to continue, in any wise, in this modus operandus that constitutes an overreach of your authority."

Even after this admonition, James invited Sinanan “to an urgent discussion for the development of the necessary protocols and systems to better prosecute transport and licensing services” between Tobago and Trinidad.

This follows road exercises by the Licensing Division and the police in Tobago in the past two weeks.

At the post-executive council media briefing on Wednesday, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine accused Trinidad-based licensing officers of “terrorising” Tobagonians during the exercises. He described them as disruptive.

Augustine said, “It should never be that we have hordes of officers coming up from Trinidad to terrorise Tobagonians…That should not be how they operate. There must be a measure of respect with how they do their duties.”

Augustine's wife – Taky-Ana Nedd-Augustine – was among drivers who were stopped and it was found that she did not have her driver's permit with her during the recent road traffic exercises. Augustine confirmed the incident in a TV6 Morning Edition interview.

In the letter, which he issued to the media on Friday, James said the matter was of “urgent administrative and social importance” and must be addressed.

He said, “This influx and operations of these Trinidad-based licensing/motor vehicle/transport officers, from all reports, has been occasioning a disturbing level of administrative and social unease – more specifically, from the stakeholders of the transport and licensing administrative framework here in Tobago, as well as from members of the motoring public. The unease has been to such an extent that there has been a chorus of calls for the Executive Council, THA, to intervene.”

James said as secretary, he was duty-bound to fulfil his responsibilities under the law. He said the THA Act "commands and empowers" him to "exercise general direction and control over that division," although there should also be consultation and collaboration between the minister and the secretary.

He told Sinanan he had tried to contact him by phone once and by WhatsApp messages “to discuss this very urgent matter, but got no response.”James said he looked forward to the discussions “with a view to preventing a recurrence of this and similar socio-political conflicts and for the promotion of harmony in the affairs of TT.”

During a media conference at the ministry in Port of Spain, on Thursday, Sinanan said James wrote to him asking for a meeting, which he had no problem with doing. He did not disclosed the contents of the letter.

"But (I will) not influence officers and tell them how to do their job when it comes to law enforcement," he said.

Sinanan and Transport Commissioner Clive Clarke, who was also at the media conference, responded to Augustine's complaint, saying that no one is above the law – including his family – and reassured Tobagonians that road traffic exercises are meant to help protect the public, not "terrorise" them.

Clarke did not name Nedd-Augustine but said she was the wife of "someone in senior public office from Tobago."

He said the woman failed to identify herself, "and that is critical to us."

He said the officers were then approached by an unmarked vehicle "with blue flashing lights" and the occupants said they came to the woman being questioned.

Eventually, Augustine also came to the scene.

Clarke explained when drivers who own a valid permit are caught driving without it, a summary offence can be issued once the person can show evidence they indeed own a valid permit. The driver is asked to pull over and either have someone with their licence on them to drive it or for someone to bring yours to you.

But by the time Augustine arrived, Clarke said, "We would have already verified the permit so they were allowed to go."

He said the matter with Nedd-Augustine was "not yet closed" and his division had six months to treat with it and they are "deliberating how we will move forward with it."

He said neither he nor his officers showed bias or were influenced by anyone in straying from the law.

In the Morning Edition interview, Augustine said he sent (his) security officers to "relieve" his wife when she stopped,

He said she forgot her driver's permit at home and was on her way to pick up their daughter.

"The security branch officers, which are Special Branch officers, they were pulled over by licensing officers and licensing officers refused to allow them to give the licence to my wife...and it reached to the point where I had to show up, myself, to give her the licence, and I'm saying that certainly is not the way we do business."

Augustine said the matter was then settled and that Clarke "offered his apologies on how the matter was handled.

The ministry's Tobago Division of the Motor Vehicle Authority has since issued a summary report on a joint road traffic enforcement and education exercise done in ten areas across the island between April 13 and 19.

The report said 692 fixed-penalty notices were issued to drivers and 29 drivers were served with driver disqualification notices owing to accumulated demerit points.

The exercises were carried out by police from the Scarborough Traffic Section, Task Force, Shirvan Police Station with support from officers from Roxborough and Charlotteville police stations together with police Road Safety Co-ordinator Sgt Brent Batson and officers from the Licensing Division.

Sinanan said Augustine's comments on licensing officers were uncalled for, disappointing, unfortunate and an attempt to "damage the credibility and and operations" of the division.

"It is in the best interest of all of us if we can have a safer TT."
– with reporting by Narissa Fraser