by Linda Straker
- 7-member Board is appointed to serve for 3 years in first instance
- Commission’s chair is Lawrence Samuel; deputy chairman is Ronald Hughes
- Transportation study to be funded by CDB and Immobility Project
Approximately 11 months after announcing the appointment of the Board of Directors of the Grenada Transport Commission, Transport Minister Norland Cox has announced that Jessmon Prince, Assistant Commissioner of Police, has been appointed as the designated interim Chief Executive Officer.
“ACP Prince is well known with all our stakeholders. I spent extensive time working with him in Spicemas. We believe that his competency, expertise, and experience is one that augurs well for this important transition in getting the work of Transport Commission and the development of the transport sector in Grenada,” Minister Cox said during the weekly post-cabinet briefing on Tuesday, 16 November 2021.
Cox said that Prince is no stranger to the transportation sector. “He is one of our long-standing persons who have been working everywhere… We believe he has a vast knowledge of the workings of the sector and a relationship with a wide cross-section of stakeholders to start that important process of reforming the transport sector,” he said.
The transportation minister said that within Transport Ministry there are several upcoming projects that will require a person like Prince to see the implementation. “We have a number of important projects that will be coming on stream so he will be key in the administration of these projects and seeing them through.” Cox identified one of those projects as a transportation study that is funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Immobility Project.
The Commission’s board is chaired by Lawrence Samuel. The deputy chairman is Ronald Hughes. Among other things, it will also be expected to advise the Ministry about licence duties and fees in respect of motor and other vehicles; the needs of any area or areas in relation to traffic (including the provision of adequate, suitable, and efficient services and the elimination of unnecessary or unremunerative services) and the coordination of all forms of passenger and goods transport; road safety; the regulation and control of traffic; regulating road transport.
Other areas for which the members shall advise the Minister will include, but are not limited to standards to be prescribed for vehicles to be used in public, commercial and private transportation; regulation of public transport infrastructure, including car park facilities, terminal facilities, bus stops, and roundabout facilities; measures for controlling public, private and commercial transportation and establishing conditions under which they may operate and any other matter affecting traffic or transport that the Minister may refer to the Grenada Transport Commission.
The 7-member Board is appointed to serve for 3 years in the first instance. According to the legislation the representatives must be the: the Commissioner of Police or his or her designate; the Permanent Secretary with responsibility for Transport; one senior representative of the Ministry with responsibility for road infrastructure, with expertise in engineering; and one person with knowledge and experience in the management of transport and traffic policy; and 3 persons with knowledge and experience in other matters including insurance; and law.
