THE Island Traffic Authority has been thrown into a tailspin by last week’s Sunday Observer lead story, which highlighted the illegal sale of motor vehicle fitness certificates at the Swallowfield depot in Kingston.

The ITA has changed the rules about who can sign fitness certificates twice in the past week, but no one has been held in connection with the incident.

Meanwhile, transport and works minister Robert Pickersgill plans to meet with the depot’s senior staff members. He wants them to convince him that they are really trying to solve the problem.

Ahead of last week’s story, a decision had been made to give six new examination officers at the depot signing privileges. The new rules were to take effect on Monday, the day after the story appeared.

“We were going to give them permission to sign. to ensure that the public leaves on time (but) I stopped them immediately,” the ITA’s senior certifying officer with responsibility for Swallowfield, John Bardowell, told the Sunday Observer on Thursday.

The depot has had a track record of good customer service, winning the Cabinet Secretary’s Trophy for the island’s most improved agency in 2001 and 2003, he said.

But by Friday, there was another change in the rules at the award-winning depot. Four of the six new examiners would be given signing privileges, Bardowell said.

“They are aware of the job description and are pretty much on top of the law, and they are pretty much qualified,” he explained.

The Swallowfield depot is the busiest of the island’s 14 examination centres, processing more than 105,000 vehicles every year.

“The number gets higher each year, with the same amount of staff, and it is very stressful,” Bardowell said.

The depot also tests new drivers before issuing those who pass the test with licences. There have been allegations that driver’s licences are also on sale at Swallowfield. (See related story below).

In addition, staff members do valuation reports on government-owned vehicles, attend court from time to time, do spot check duties along with the traffic police and inspect fleets of vehicles at owners’ garages.

Last year, the ITA recruited 13 junior officers, short-listed from around 50 applicants. Six of them were sent to Swallowfield, the St Andrew collectorate, and the other seven were sent to Spanish Town.

Trainee examiners are routinely expected to work more than six months before being allowed to sign fitness documents. During the ‘probationary’ period, they can only examine the vehicles and make recommendations to a supervisor, who would then sign the certificate.

During the Sunday Observer investigation, the initial contact – a man who appears to spend a lot of time on the compound – backed out after he realised his picture was being taken. But a junior examiner, who said he could supply a fitness certificate for a defective car, later produced the document after consultation with someone whom he referred to as his “senior”.

Last Monday, Pickersgill ordered an immediate investigation into the activities at the Swallowfield depot and ITA officials said they were told to “try and find the culprit”.

According to Bardowell, investigations are continuing, but unless the Sunday Observer presents the fitness certificate issued, it is unlikely that they will find the offender.

According to the transport minister, he wants to meet with senior depot staff so that he can “really speak to them and for them to convince us as to what measures they are immediately adopting to cause this thing (the sale of documents), if not to cease, to really be minimised,” he told the Sunday Observer. “Because there is no doubt in the public’s mind that this is happening.”

Pickersgill maintained that the long-awaited privatisation of the island’s depots will help to eliminate the corruption that has seeped into the system.

He added that negotiations with businessman Pat Rousseau and his partner Alva Anderson, who will be taking over the motor vehicle examining operations of the ITA, were well underway.

And there is added urgency in the face of the growing number of unlicensed vehicles and road fatalities.

“The negotiations had reached pretty far about some months ago,” the minister said. “But the people who wanted to take over were asking for a guarantee that the government was not prepared to give.

We have gotten over that hurdle and the negotiations are complete. It’s just a matter of time before it comes to the Cabinet and before it’s implemented.”