Gov’t in talks with companies for CRG number plates

Georgetown: Minister of State Joseph Harmon on Wednesday disclosed that Government is currently in talks with several companies on the Cooperative Republic of Guyana (CRG) registration plates for State-owned vehicles.
At the post Cabinet briefing, Harmon disclosed that both local and overseas companies have expressed interests in producing the number plates: “So we are going through that process. What we want to do is that once these plates are issued they will have to have some security features and these are the things we are doing right now.”
In July last year, Cabinet had approved the use of the CRG registration plates for State-owned vehicles. It also gave its no objection for the issuance of these registration plates to be a centralised system.
The plates will carry special security features to stymie the use of falsely registered plates and enable easier tracking and identification. It is intended that all vehicles to be purchased for use by the State and State agencies will be fitted with the CRG registration plates.
Harmon had stated that the CRG plates would come into effect after some minor adjustments to the Motor Vehicle Regulations were completed. He had explained that the CRG plates will serve to identify State-owned vehicles.
“You will not have the situation where private number plates are on vehicles, and, therefore, they can be abused by persons and it is not clear to the public that these are Government vehicles,” he noted.
According to the Minister, this decision was taken in light of the challenges the APNU/AFC Government had faced upon its assumption to office last year in recovering some of the assets, including vehicles, misappropriated by officials linked to the previous Administration.
“So as soon as you see a CRG number plate, you will know that it is a State vehicle. So it is going to be easing and aiding in the identification of State-owned vehicles,” he pointed out.
He added that the new system would also address those vehicles which belong to the State but which people were holding under private number plates:
“We will assign CRG numbers to those vehicles… Once you have a CRG registered vehicle but you have a private number plate on it, then the Police can actually go and seize that vehicle from you, because it belongs to the State.”