Making our Port the best

But what is going to happen after the season? The question assumes especial importance in light of the rising cost of living and creeping inflation. These by themselves will put sufficient strain on consumers’ backs, without additional costs being passed on to them because of inefficiency on the part of the port. Indeed, the statement makes us wonder about the implication that port stakeholders do not, in fact, habitually work to clear containers as quickly as possible. Surely, this should be a standard practice, and not a special Christmas effort.

Indeed, the hauliers’ impasse was rooted in the issue of a slow turnover at the port. The hauliers had threatened to charge a fee for being kept waiting for containers to be loaded on to their trucks. Works Minister Colm Imbert, who seems to have regained his pugnacious attitude with his reappointment to his original portfolio, had threatened legal action against the hauliers. But a compromise has been brokered, and Mr Imbert has promised to do an audit to verify the turnaround time for trucks at the port.

That, however, is the secondary issue. If the auditor has not already been mandated to do so, the minister should also ask him to check the rate at which goods are cleared on the port.

The auditor should examine whether this is done in the optimum time possible, given the available manpower and equipment, and do a comparison with ports in nations such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands, whose ports have a high reputation for efficiency.

There also needs to be an examination of some of the port’s regulations. For example, importers are charged additional fees if their containers are not cleared within a certain timeframe. But such a regulation seems to be an incentive to inefficiency, since what it means is that the port earns additional monies for not doing its job properly. Surely it would be more rational to establish reasonable timeframes for clearing goods, and have the port bear the costs if such goals are not met. Such a system would also ensure that particular individuals have clearly identified responsibilities, so that blame for any breakdown would land on their desks. This, once coupled with proper delegation of power, is crucial to organisational efficiency.

Such an overhaul of the Port of Port-of-Spain is absolutely necessary, not only for helping keep the cost of living down for citizens, but also for establishing Trinidad and Tobago as hub of commercial activity between South and North America. When Singapore embarked on its journey to become a developed nation in the 1960s, one of their first goals was to make their port one of the best in the world. As an island-nation, they understood how crucial this was for economic success. The same principle holds true for this country.