IN A move aimed at strict enforcement of the provisions of the Road Traffic Act, particularly against illegal taxi operators, the Government is looking at providing members of the Port Security Corps with legislative powers.

Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry confirmed recent comments made by technocrats in the ministry that the administration was contemplating giving increased powers to members of the Port Security Corps to assist the police, specifically with road traffic enforcement.

This will come as a package of measures being reviewed by the ministry to effectively streamline public transportation in Jamaica.

Business flourishing

Ministry and Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) officials, who recently appeared before the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee of Parliament, said illegal taxi operations in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR) were flourishing, to the detriment of the state-owned bus company. They argued that this was having a severe impact on the bottom line of the JUTC.

The company is slated to lose $1.2 billion at the end of the fiscal year in March.

Paul Abrahams, a JUTC director, told the committee that the company was losing more than a billion dollars to illegal operators.

"I must stress, the majority of revenue comes directly from ridership and when you are losing $1.5 billion a year to illegal operators and legal operators working illegally, if that is not corrected, it will not be any better," he told committee members.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Works, Dr Alwin Hales, blamed the police for their unwillingness to move against illegal operators in the KMTR, particularly in Half-Way Tree.

"We have written to the commissioner of police, because part of the problem that we are having with enforcement is the non-cooperation of the police, because of their own involvement of their members in public transportation within the KMTR," he stressed.

Staggering numbers

A recent study done by the Transport Authority revealed that of the 43,941 vehicles used for public transportation islandwide, 12,057, or 27 per cent, were operating illegally.

"... These numbers are staggering. If we were to prosecute all of these, we maybe would make enough money from fines to cover the JUTC deficit," he said during the committee meeting.

Hales further argued that it would be useless for the JUTC to roll out 50 new buses and place them on routes for them to run empty.

He said the ministry had provided the police with two vehicles and an office in the transport centre with monitors linked to cameras strategically placed to cover the Half-Way Tree area. However, Dr Hales said: "We are still not getting the response that we need to get."

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com