THE GOVERNMENT yesterday passed two bills to give more powers to the Transport Authority and which will see illegal taxi operators facing heftier road fines.
During the debate on the legislation, Maxine Henry-Wilson, Minister of Education, Youth and Culture, argued against suggestions made last week that the proposed fines were too high and that the power to seize vehicles should be stripped from the Transport Authority to prevent possible corruption.
"My point is, I believe that in coming to some agreement about how we proceed with our public transportation system, that the transport authority and others need to be given the teeth to ensure that they are effective regulators of our public passenger transport system," Mrs. Henry-Wilson argued.
The proposed fines range from $25,000 to $500,000 or a twelve-month prison term.
DISTURBING STORIES
The Education Minister claimed that she has heard disturbing stories about what takes place in some illegal taxis.
Therefore, she said: "My plea really is, in our quest to protect some, let us ensure that we provide for some of the more vulnerable in the society (like) our school children and our young girls."
Mrs. Henry-Wilson was reacting to the comments made during the same debate, last week, by Andrew Gallimore, Opposition Member of Parliament for West Rural St. Andrew.
Mr. Gallimore had said that the fines were too high for many to pay and called on the Government to put an end to the police and Transport Authority practice of seizing illegal taxis at will.
He had suggested that it was well known that vehicle owners have been pushed to bribe the authorities to prevent their vehicles from being confiscated, and fines from being levied against them.
Mr. Gallimore said that an alternative system should be created to determine which vehicles are seized, separate from the police and the transport authority.
Yesterday Robert Pickersgill, minister of Transport and Works, pointed out that the seizure of vehicles was a more than 50-year-old practice, and that the Government was actually seeking to regularise the process.
