Urgent reform is coming to the Barbados Licensing Authority (BLA).
This was revealed today by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources, Santia Bradshaw, who admitted that the government institution had several structural flaws that needed to be remedied.
She made the comments while pointing out that the authority was still battling with a backlog of over 5 000 drivers’ licences.
“It requires a deeper look at the structure of the Licensing Authority. There are a number of positions that have not been filled and it has also impacted on the ability of the staff to be able to properly execute. We have a lot of good staff but we also have some challenges in terms of structurally, trying to get these things done, and so in the interim, we may now have to outsource certain services to be able to have the drivers’ licences scanned and be able to have a system of distributing them to the general public,” Bradshaw said during debate on the Road Traffic Amendment Bill, 2022, in Parliament today.
“The good news is that there is already in motion plans for the modernization of the licensing authority. We started in 2020 with a process for ensuring that persons could pay for their renewal of their licence online…So we are moving very swiftly to reform the authority to bring it into the 21st century.”
Bradshaw said it was hoped that by March other online services would be available to the public such as the payment for regulation tests and booking appointments.
Speaking specifically about the backlog, the Deputy Prime Minister said efforts were continuing to deliver those drivers’ licences for which payment had already been received.
She said the licensing authority’s partnership with the General Post Office in delivering those licences had not gone as smoothly as hoped.
“Regrettably we still have a number of licences that are still in the possession of the licensing authority. Despite having utilized the services of the General Post Office to assist us in delivering licences to actual homes for people who paid online, we ran into a situation in some cases where we had incorrect addresses or the persons were not able to find the individuals at the time and so we still do have a number of those licences which would have been in the possession of the General Post Office and which are still to be delivered.
“So of about the 15 769 driving licences sent to the General Post Office, we have to date been able to deliver 9 640 leaving a total of 5 221 still to be delivered. Of that number we have about 908 that were returned to the Barbados Licensing Authority because those persons could not be found at the address,” Bradshaw said.
She disclosed that Government was in the process of finding an additional service provider to help in the distribution of those licences.
