Chief Secretary: Trinidad licensing officers 'terrorising' Tobagonians

THA CHIEF SECRETARY Farley Augustine has accused Trinidad licensing officers of “terrorising” Tobagonians.

At the post executive council media briefing on Wednesday at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, Augustine described as “disruptive,” the manner in which the licensing officers have been conducting their road exercises in Tobago within the past few days.

Last Friday, it was revealed that over 100 tickets were issued to drivers for traffic violations in road traffic enforcement exercises across the island.

The exercises are being carried out by the TT Police Service and the Licensing Authority.

Augustine acknowledged the licensing department has the responsibility to ensure that citizens abide by the laws for motor vehicle use on the roads.

“We support that. They have that right in law. In fact, we need that to happen because road fatalities are a thing for us even here in Tobago. So there is a need for our vehicles to be road worthy, for our vehicles to be efficient, for people to abide by what the laws say,” he told reporters.

But Augustine said there were some “serious challenges that I must echo on behalf of the people of Tobago and, certainly, on behalf of this government.”

He said, “In the first instance, it should never be that we have hordes of officers coming up from Trinidad to terrorise Tobagonians. That should never be the case. That should not be how they operate. There must be a measure of respect with how they do their duties.”

Augustine said members of the THA have been observing, getting reports and experiencing instances where licensing officers would just pull drivers to the side of the road for as much as 40 minutes in some cases for what they believed to be infractions.

He added, “We are seeing people turning up for minor things that we believe discretion could be used because, in the spirit of the law, there are discretionary powers assigned to the officers and that seems to not exist in Tobago’s case.”

Augustine said it appears as though there is a “mad rush” to issue tickets.

“That is not how we operate. It should not be once per year that they show up during our peak season. You become very disruptive in how you do the work. You disrupt traffic along our narrow carriageways, indiscriminate in how you apply the law and we think that is okay. That could never be okay.”

Even so, he said the licensing department in Tobago is not where it should be.

“In fact, as we speak, we have empty offices, allocated since 2017 up at the Roxborough Administrative Complex, space already built out taking cobweb and we could have easily distributed the services across the island to allow for people to get even greater access to services. That has not happened.”

Augustine said Secretary of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development Trevor James plans to staff the facility “because the last time I checked, the licensing is under the fifth schedule so we are going to proceed to do all that is necessary to staff the office in Roxborough.”

He said there is a process by which licensing officers within the public sector are selected, promoted and moved.

“But, notwithstanding, we are going to do what we can on our end and ensure we staff that place to allow for greater efficiency in how they manage their duties.”

On Wednesday, the Tobago Division of the Motor Vehicle Authority under the Ministry of Works and Transport issued a summary report on a joint road traffic enforcement and education exercise was conducted in ten areas across the island between April 13 and 19.

The report said 692 fixed-penalty notices were issued to drivers for traffic violations over the seven-day period while 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. They were co-ordinated by Transport Commissioner Clive Clarke, Snr Supt Jackman and ASP Joseph.