VMCOTT owed $37.4 million by state agencies

THE Vehicle Management Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (VMCOTT) is owed $37.4 million by various creditors from 2012 to present. It owes its creditors $8.6 million, accrued from 2015 to present.

Speaking to a Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee meeting on Wednesday, finance manager Brian Aliendre made the revelation following questions from committee members.

Chairman Lt Col Neil Bennet (retired) said when the current board came aboard in 2016, it was a challenging time for the company.

“We could not engage in monies collected from debts owed to VMCOTT. The receivables were in excess of $30 million.

“Additionally, then and prior to 2016, had a situation where it was taking parts from a number of suppliers and were heavily indebted to those suppliers.”

He said the issue of litigation was raised by the private sector suppliers. He said a decision was taken to make payments arranged around the company and the debtors using the subvention being received at the time while also continuing the purpose of being a fleet management provider to the private sector, including ministries, the police service and PTSC.

“Before that, we had a mandate to engage with the public, placing emphasis on attracting more clientele. VMCOTT cannot take a ministry to court for monies owed to it and we were heavily dependent on our line ministry.

“This is a mandate coming out of the corporation sole. We have guidelines that instruct us not to do that.”

Bennet said VMCOTT has embarked on a programme where the finance department is calling and writing its debtors monthly to recover its receivables.

Scotland asked if the debts were being kept alive and if VMCOTT was aware that the collection of a debt is statute-barred after four years. Bennet said he was not aware of this. He said the debt had been kept alive and continued to collect. TTPS has owed money as far back as 2004.

“We have received some payments from them and are working on collecting the outstanding amount. In addition, recently, MOWT has been the mediator in the collection of a debt owed by PTSC of $6.5 million, which we utilised to reduce the monies we owed.”

Senator Hazel Thompson-Ahye said the comments made by the internal auditors showed an attitude of nonchalance on the part of the company towards collecting the money owed. These included following up on debts in a timely matter and the duty to properly input and file documents.

Bennet said there had been several changes in staff since those comments were made.

“We’ve had a number of miscreants who would come there and work for VMCOTT, and represented erroneous information being passed.

“When I became chairman of the Board of Directors in 2016, the prior management never brought certain information to the attention of the board. That is where we queried the internal auditor’s processes, this was brought up. We are remedying that.

“People come into VMCOTT and think it’s a government service, so they don’t have to work diligently, seriously, in doing what is required. Based on the internal auditor’s comments, we’ve tightened up on these processes.

“Our current finance manager is working on ensuring we have competent staff to do the job, and we adhere to the concerns expressed by the internal auditor in collecting our monies and clearing out our debts.”