A charity was caught up in a red-tape nightmare last week at the Transport Control Department when it was told it could not licence its vans due to inaccurate information about unpaid tax and insurance.

The mix-up meant that PALS staff wasted hours of their valuable time getting proof from the relevant government departments that the social insurance and payroll tax payments had indeed been made.

The charity, which cares for cancer sufferers, did eventually manage to licence the four vehicles in question which are used by its nurses to visit patients.

However, the organisation?s President and CEO, Ann Smith Gordon told she had never heard of a policy of tax checks at TCD, and expressed concern that PALS may not be the only organisation affected by problems with it.

?I think that this is a brilliant idea if taxes have really not been paid, but perhaps it is not running smoothly. I wonder whether the TCD is linked to the tax commissioner?s office and the social insurance office? People need to know about this,? she said.

A PALS administrative worker, who did not wish to be named, spent from 9.10 a.m. until 11.45a.m. on Monday morning trying in vain to get the vans licensed.

She explained that the original problem occurred in October when four of the charity?s five vans went to the TCD examiner for checking, and the examiner said they could not be passed as the computer indicated that social insurance and payroll tax payments were outstanding.

The TCD requested a letter proving that social insurance had been paid and a receipt for the online tax payment before agreeing to pass the vehicles.

However, this was not the end of the issue as when the administrative worker went to TCD on Monday morning to get the licence and registration stickers for the vans, she encountered the same problem again.

?The girl at TCD said PALS has not paid tax. I had the receipt for the tax being paid online and the social insurance letter but she said I needed a letter from the tax commissioner?s office. I went to that office and said that I had a receipt for payment online and waited 25 minutes for them to give me a letter,? she explained.

She returned to the TCD with this, plus the four van licences. However, when she got to the counter, she claims that the clerk informed her that she could only licence two vehicles, and could not quote her the amount to be paid.

The worker says she was then told that she would have to leave her paperwork and a blank cheque at the TCD, and that PALS would be rung when everything was ready.

?There is a lack of communication somewhere,? she said. ?The place was packed. Everyone was down there waiting in line to pass their vans ? perhaps 30 or 40 of them. Some were being told to go and get letters.?

The charity was eventually able to pick up its new licences from TCD yesterday.

Marc Telemaque, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Transport, said the policy of conducting social insurance and payroll tax checks had been in place for some time, and that all people in the commercial sector are aware of it as it is explained on the licence application document.

TCD Director Randy Brangman explained that TCD have a list of persons who have tax and social insurance payments outstanding, which is supplied to it by the social insurance and tax commissioner?s offices.

?This is sent to one of our clerks and she then flags it up on our system to notify the other clerks. If a person owes monies then it is up to them to go back to the relevant department. When the department says that they have been paid then the clerks can authorise the licence transaction,? he said.

Mr Brangman declined to comment on the specific problem encountered by PALS, but added: ?I?m pretty comfortable with our system, and our girls are doing a spectacular job.?