Authorities declare war on illegal motor vehicle fitness certificates

If you have become used to the habit of simply sending your motor vehicle documents to a 'link' at an examination depot in order to get a certificate of fitness, you should get used to playing by the rules.

The Island Traffic Authority (ITA) has launched an electronic system to

eradicate corruption at depots across the island and reduce the possibility of fraud traffic documents.

Raynor Grindley, audit compliance manager at the ITA, told THE WEEKEND STAR that the system will involve geo-fencing, to ensure that cars are actually examined at depots before fitness certificates are issued.

"This project also involves some amount of geo-fencing so we can know for sure that a man don't just call up him friend and say deal with that for me and the car actually go the depot," Grindley explained.

It is widely believed that examiners at various depots across the island hand fitness certificates to defective vehicles.

Grindley said that the ITA will be rolling out a fully automated system by the middle of the month.

"We are looking to start this in the middle of the month, firstly, with training of the clerks at the various depots," Grindley said.

"We were supposed to start training last week, but we had a few setbacks."

According to Grindley, the ITA will be rolling out the new electronic system at depots. These include: Swallowfield, Spanish Town Road, Mandeville, St Ann's Bay, and Montego Bay.

"So we are doing it within the corporate area, then we are moving out to Mandeville, Montego Bay, then St Ann's Bay," Grindley said.

Grindley told THE WEEKEND STAR that today they meet with the various stakeholders at the launch to relay how the system will work.

"Today, we invited several stakeholders. We invited Customs, insurance companies, and the police. Today, we shared how we are going to deal with our vehicular management system to ensure that all vehicles that are passed actually go through a depot, and how we capture the data and how we print the data," Grindley said.

"Once you have entered the depot and the fitness is done, that fitness is uploaded to the system and the TAJ (Tax Authority of Jamaica) and other stakeholders could access the information. One can then walk in the tax office and license your vehicle with only the insurance documents. Because the fitness is on the system," Grindley said.