(Trinidad Guardian) Despite the surging homicide rate inching towards 400, the majority of killings being gun related, and the staggering presence of approximately 12,000 illegal firearms in this country, the cargo and container scanners at the ports of Port-of-Spain and Point Lisas are obsolete or non-functional, making the detection of illegal weapons and other goods entering the country even more difficult.
Acting Comptroller at Customs and Excise Division Vidya Marcial, responding exclusively to queries from the Sunday Guardian, revealed the division’s issues with the scanners last Tuesday.
“The scanners are obsolete. Those scanners were a donation from the United States Government. The mobile scanners are not functioning. The fixed scanner in Port-of-Spain is functioning,” Marcial admitted in a frank interview. She is the first Comptroller at the Customs and Excise Division for quite some time that spoke directly to the media on this very troubling issue that has plagued the country’s ports for several years.
“I sent out a request to the Permanent Secretary (PS) and Ministry of Finance. But remember, we don’t have people in Trinidad who can provide that, so it has to be outsourced, and that will be a little tricky because they have to get all the specs,” Marcial said.
“The specs have to be right and it has to be for what we want it for. So we’re working on that. We did get some help from a US adviser. There’s a US adviser who is attached to the comptroller and they assisted us in putting together something.”
Two separate senior customs sources, who spoke anonymously, confirmed that the Port of Port-of-Spain only has access to one fixed scanner, while the mobile scanners and fixed scanner at the Point Lisas Port are not operational.
“The mobile scanners are old and the contract to repair them with Massy is very costly, given the age and frequency of downtime after it’s repaired. The cost does not make economic sense. These mobile scanners were donated to Trinidad by the USA quite a while now, so the software has become obsolete,” one of the sources said.
There is also a highly organised (illegal) system within the port involving workers who allow illegal items to pass through and enter the country, the source revealed.
“Lots of barrels are stolen from shed ten from the Port of Port-of-Spain. When the containers are stuffed, the workers know exactly where to place the barrels of interest because they are expecting these and they take them out of the port. That’s a highly organised (illegal) system within the port.”
The sources said that with the constant and efficient use of scanners, officers could easily distinguish between different commodities in a container.
As an example, they said the scanners would be able to identify a bicycle in a 40-foot container.
In its absence, it makes it significantly easier for illegal weapons and contraband to pass unnoticed in containers.
The Sunday Guardian discovered that the perennial problems facing the Customs and Excise Division do not end there.
Other challenges make the work of the Customs and Excise Division onerous. In addition to technological shortcomings, the division is facing manpower issues.
At present, the division is understaffed by 40 per cent.
“We have 110 vacancies. I have asked for at least 100 new recruits…It’s still around that number (60 per cent filled),” the Acting Comptroller said.
“What happened is…I had pursued that (issue) with Finance and PS, and they advertised the posts. Candidates were shortlisted. They had interviews. They had exams. So, with effect from June/July, we started to receive officers. To date, we’ve received about 30 new officers/recruits.”
The non-functional and obsolete scanners, the illegal system involving some workers allowing contrabands, illegal guns and ammunition to pass, and the grave shortage of officers are clearly putting a strain on the Division’s ability to effectively carry out its job.
Approximately 87 per cent of murders in Trinidad and Tobago are firearm-related, according to Trinidad and Tobago Police Service statistics.
At a PNM Public Meeting in Belmont last Tuesday, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said the country clearly has a problem with guns.
“The SSA did a survey and estimated that there were 12,000 illegal weapons in Trinidad and Tobago, and from the way it looks, it might very well be more,” he said.
He sought to assure those in attendance that the Government has taken several steps to attempt to prevent the entrance and movement of illegal firearms into and around Trinidad and Tobago.
This reporter contacted Minister in the Ministry of Finance Brian Manning and the ministry’s communications team on the matter involving the scanners and the shortage of officers but there was no response up to late yesterday.
