Lambert Brown lashes transport ministry

Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

Government Senator Lambert Brown this morning criticised civil servants in the Ministry of Transport and Works, accusing them of failing to provide a parliamentary committee with adequate information.

Transport Ministry was asked at the sitting to explain why the police was removed from the process of granting substitute drivers licences to persons who have reported them lost.

The police were removed from the system in 2007.

When he appeared before the committee, Senior Superintendent of Police Radcliffe Lewis had linked the removal of the police from the system to an increase in the number of people who are granted replacement driver’s licences.

Committee member Arthur Williams said it is important that the reason for the police being taken out of the system be disclosed to the committee.

However, Imani Duncan Price, whose motion on the driver’s licence system and road traffic issues is being considered by the committee, said the information being sought could be supplied at a later date.

She said that information could form part of the proposed revision to the Road Traffic Act and urged the committee not to be caught in what she described as the paralysis of analysis.

However, Brown was in strident opposition saying he believed in data-driven decisions.

He said civil servants have a responsibility to provide whatever is requested and adding that to make decisions based on assumptions is ill-advised.

Committee chairman Navel Clarke agreed that the information being requested is necessary, saying the committee cannot make a recommendation about whether to re-include the police in the system, without knowing why they were removed in the first place.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com