By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Road Traffic Controller Brensil Rolle yesterday slammed the government for the chaos and long lines associated with the Road Traffic Department’s automated system roll out, blaming it on “poor management” and a “lack of preparation.”

Mr Rolle said that “the government didn’t have to reinvent the wheel” to introduce its new $8m system, adding that while he is “not surprised” by the chaos that has come to define the registration exercise, he is “disappointed the government did not have any serious plans to address this problem” from the onset.

Mr Rolle, who left his post as Road Traffic controller in 2004, also criticised Transport and Aviation Minister Glenys Hanna Martin’s recent claims that the department did not anticipate such a dismal roll out of the system. He said if the department had sought to conduct pre-registration exercises as well as provide the public with constant updates, it “would have reduced the possibility of potential for delays” and “persons would not have been on the lines this long.”

“They (the government) can’t say they didn’t anticipate the crowd,” Mr Rolle said. “If you know 20,000 persons would register in the month of October, and you take two weeks off without registering anyone for the month of October, surely you would know that in the month of October, if you try to do that work in two weeks you’re going to have more problems.

“So I’m not surprised that the registration is taking eight hours, 10 hours and persons are told ‘come back because we’re just doing a preliminary walkthrough.’ I’m not surprised at that. I’m disappointed though, that that has become acceptable to the government. I’m disappointed the government did not have any serious plans to address this problem.”

He added: “So I don’t see any justification why this could be acceptable. And I see the minister trying to deflect saying that registration is because the Carmichael station is down, and all manner of things. But that has nothing to do with it. The fact is the personnel operating the computerization system are not familiar with the operations of the (RTD) generally speaking. Secondly, there was no preparation for the potential long lines.”

Mr Rolle said any number of options would have been present to the department prior to the implementation of its new system that would have mitigated against most, if not all of the ensuing chaos, which he said includes conducting pre-registration exercises, supplying a constant stream of information and updates, as well as staggering the days and/or times various stages of the process would occur.

“The government knew since August the system was going to take place, so they could have done pre-registration,” he said. “And pre-registration could have meant you could come in and drop your information off, these are the requirements, bring them into us and we will have this information in the system in advance. They could have also uploaded the information they had on the existing system that was used in road traffic, although it was incomplete. Certainly they could have uploaded most of that information.

“They should have known at least half of the people coming in October, so some preparation could have been made for that. And some strategic plan could have been made to say to individuals ‘come in advance, these things are going to happen, these are the requirements, if you give us your vehicle information in advance,’ and if they started from August, or September, or one month in advance, persons would not have been on the line this long.”

“But there was no clear and definitive announcement to the public to tell them what to expect, other than to say the government was introducing a new system.”

The department’s registration exercise for its new electronic system is now in its fifth day of operation at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, but has been marred with problems, largely due to a faulty registration process and various glitches and confusion at roughly each stage of the exercise.

On Tuesday, Mrs Hanna Martin admitted the department did not anticipate the chaos and “glitches” with the new system, which she acknowledged was “unacceptable.”

She said the department would roll out several measures aimed at combatting the chaos and long lines at the department’s temporary national stadium location, beginning with extending operating hours.

Apart from new operating hours of 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and on Saturdays from 10am to 3pm, the Carmichael Road office, which was previously closed down, will reopen during the first week in November, she said.

Officials also plan to place tents around the stadium to shelter motorists from the sun as they wait for information to be processed and plan to erect more signs to better assist with processing. Additionally, the Ministry of Finance has sent additional data entry workers and added staff to assist with vehicle inspections.