President of the Trinidad and Tobago Scrap Iron Dealers Association, Allan Ferguson, said his association aims to restore credibility to the profession by ridding the sector of unscrupulous persons.
During a press conference on Monday, First Vice President of the Trinidad and Tobago Scrap Iron Dealers’ Association, Erros Seejattan, said the association is limited in what it can do to curtail instances of organised crime and theft among the few dishonest members of the industry.
“Basically, it is not our fault. Things that are happening in the industry are not happening within the dealerships.”
Mr Ferguson’s views were similar.
“When the material come to our yard from the van collectors, majority of the van collectors, I could tell you, and I could vouch for that is honest working people that work each and every single day and bring material to our yards. I could tell you, I’m not going to say 99 or 100 per cent of them is honest, but I could tell you the majority of them work hard and bring, bring, bring the material to our yard for us, our workers in the yard, to sort out.”
Mr Ferguson said the Association remains committed to working with the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and other stakeholders to address the issues affecting the sector.
“When this new Minister installed, the first thing as I do, I write him for a meeting, and when I write him for a meeting, it was to do certain things to get this industry how it’s supposed to be and he hear our cry and he put people from different Ministries in to be in the committee and we is working hard with the Ministry of Trade and other government agency to fix this problem that we have.”
Mr Ferguson said the problem stems from unscrupulous persons bringing copper to scrap yards in the hope of a quick payday without proper documentation.
“As the police say, it’s difficult for us sometimes to know where they get it. Now some scrapyards supposed to have a good understanding of what is stolen stuff and what is normal stuff because most yards want to know the proof of where you get that material from, what you’re selling to our yards.”
Mr Ferguson said the Association has been conducting its due diligence, writing to authorities about the activities of unscrupulous individuals and businesses in the scrap industry.