THERE are more questions than answers surrounding the controversial Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Medical Transcription Centre, which is located in Signal Hill.

The project, alleged to be the brain-child of Secretary for Finance and Planning, Dr. Anslem London, has been grabbing the spotlight with a well-publicised Open House and Job Fair advertised in both the print and electronic media taking place at the centre recently.

Both Dr. London and THA Chief Secretary Orville London had touted the event as one that was designed to provide an expansion of the information technology job opportunities for hundreds of young Tobagonians.

The THA had earlier in the year signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Gillette Croup of Companies to operate the Transcription centre, which was constructed at a cost of over $10 million.

Would-be telephone operators wait under
two tents to be interviewed.

Would-be info-tech job applicants were
made to write an examination.

The project had, however, failed to attract the kind of business for which it was intended and the close to 100 trained medical transcriptionists employed there had been practising on “dead files” for the last two years, according to inside sources.

A well-placed source told TnT Mirror that the centre has been a major financial drain on the THA finances with no significant returns on the huge investments made in the project.

“The THA would have also invested heavily in equipping the centre with the high-tech, state-of-the-art computer hardware needed to carry out the kind of jobs expected there,” the source pointed out.

“You also have to look at the maintenance factor of the equipment.

“The wage bill would have been a hefty one each month, so that it was not surprising that the THA took a decision to link up with a partner to get the project going.”

However, the Job Fair event only attracted a small gathering of young job seekers.

They camped out in two tents outside of the Transcription building. Questioned, one job aspirant told Mirror that they were given forms to fill out, then they were given an examination to sit and they were now waiting under the tent to be interviewed.

This was confirmed by three registration clerks seated at a table on the outskirts of the building.
After taking a few pictures of the entire set up, Mirror was approached by a security person and told to get off the compound as no permission was given to the media.

After protests, Mirror was referred to the General Manager, whose name was given as Damien Hares for further instructions.

Efforts to speak to Hares were, however, futile as his secretary said that he was unavailable at the time.

A crudely constructed brochure indicated that the company DirecOne International Call Centre, a member of the Gillette Group, was now seeking to expand the services at the centre to include the provision of telecommunications options for clients in the field of finance such as credit cards, insurance and mortgage.

Meanwhile, there are calls for a comprehensive audit of the THA accounts by the Auditor General Department by concerned Tobagonians. They have been pointing out that since the PNM administration took over the affairs of the Assembly some five years ago, there has been no reports of yearly audits of the THA books.