Public Utilities Minister Senator Robert Le Hunte has challenged the Board of TT POST to work towards achieving greater levels of efficiency and increasing its revenue streams.
The Minister issued the challenge as he handed out instruments of appointment to members of the TT POST Board in a ceremony at the Ministry’s Head Office in St. Clair on Wednesday morning.
Minister Le Hunte told the TT POST board it needed to recognize that the organization’s business model must change in order to adapt to the new global realities. He noted that the advancements in digital technology have changed market conditions in the postal industry across the globe.
As such, TT POST, like other national postal services, needs to engage in a process of transformative change in order to maintain relevance and ensure sustainability.
The Public Utilities Minister emphasized that given the country’s economic realities, it cannot be business as usual. He encouraged the Board to explore mechanisms to improve efficiencies, while reducing operating costs and increasing revenues.
This, Minister Le Hunte notes, could be achieved in the main, by identifying new lines of business.
He cited the new S- 42 postal address system, which is currently being rolled out to communities in Trinidad and Tobago, as one initiative that will improve the organization’s service to its customers.
Quoting the Prince by Machiavelli, Minister Le Hunte said, “it must be realized that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more uncertain of success or more dangerous to manage than the establishment of a new order of things; for he who introduces change makes enemies of all those who derive advantage from the old order of things, but finds lukewarm defenders among those who stand to gain from the new one."
Minister Le Hunte told the Board it was therefore up to them to embark on charting new horizons for TT POST, but urged them to do so in consultation with all stakeholders in an attempt to bring them along as far as possible.
Such consultation, he said. should also include the unions with a view to laying to rest outstanding issues, particularly as they relate to pension plans that need to be brought to conclusion.
Returning to the newly appointed Board are Chairman Eula Rogers, along with members Kevin Finch, Human Resource professional, Carol David, and Dana O’ Neil-Gervais. In accepting her instruments as Chairman, Ms. Rogers, a former executive banker, thanked the Minister and the Government for the confidence reposed in her. She acknowledged the fact that it cannot be business as usual, and committed to engage the organization in a transformation exercise to keep pace with changing market conditions. The TT POST Chairman also committed to concluding the long outstanding S-42 postal address system during the current Board’s tenure.
Joining the Board are chartered accountant Hakeem Ahmad and business executive Natasha Phillips.