Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter
FIVE SENIOR managers at the state-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) had their contracts terminated yesterday by company president Ryan White.
Douglas Chambers, the newly appointed chairman of the JUTC board, confirmed yesterday that five persons, including the vice-presidents of finance and operations, were terminated before the new board met with managers yesterday.
"It is irrelevant how anybody at JUTC was employed. The only thing that will make them keep their jobs is professionalism, integrity or honesty," Mr. Chambers told The Gleaner.
A release from the JUTC yesterday said that the company was reorganising its operations to increase efficiency.
"The reorganising will result in positions being made redundant," the release said.
Mr. Chambers, a chartered accountant who has taken leave from his company to head the JUTC, said the JUTC has been working closely with the trade unions for the last three weeks so as to ensure that "all the proper procedures" are followed in the termination of employment contracts.
Mr. Chambers officially took up the job as chairman of the JUTC board on Monday, but said he has been working for up to 15 hours daily for the last three weeks in the capacity.
Reducing the company's losses
Mike Henry, Minister of Transport and Works, on Tuesday told journalists at a post-Cabinet press briefing that the new JUTC board has been charged with reducing the company's losses.
Mr. Henry said the JUTC was losing $100 million per day. However, Mr. Chambers said that the minister made a mistake. He told The Gleaner that the JUTC has been losing an average of $136 million per month since April.
In yesterday's release, the JUTC said that it will be placing emphasis on the scheduling and dispatching of buses as it aims to improve service delivery.
The JUTC was established in 1998 to provide exclusive bus transport services to commuters traveling in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region.
In 2004 the company operated with a fleet of 614 buses on 68 routes and operated sub-licences on 16 other routes. The current fleet number is between 250 and 300 buses, according to Mr. Henry, who has blamed poor management for the state of the bus service.
