Minister of Transport Responds to E Bus Issue

The Ministry of Transportation has clarified that there has been no official announcement award contract for the electric buses donated by the European Union. In a letter dated August 7, addressed to the Minister of Transportation Dr. Louis Zabaneh, the Belize Bus Owners Association (BBA) indicated that the management of the three e-buses was granted to Westline Bus company. With that narrative, the BBA took major issue with the situation, saying the former Minister of Transport Rodwell Ferguson had committed to an arrangement where one would be deployed in the north, another in the west and in the south.  It turns out, however, that the BBA was misinformed as Dr Zabaneh clarified that no such decision had been announced. Speaking with our newsroom this evening, the minister did concede that since it would be pilot project geared at collecting data, the award would have to go to one operator.  

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transportation: “The position that they have take is indeed premature. The process should be completed within the next couple weeks and the public will be fully informed. I wouldn’t be able to speak to what Honorable Rodwell Ferguson may have said to them or not I am just going by what I have been informed by the technical people at the UNDP, from my ministry and from the Ministry of Energy. This is the arrangement that one bus company would be considered the winner of the bid. As I said that’s in process now and then that one bus company would have the buses to operate to gather data on the performance of the bus up to the end of this year. Then once that is done the three buses will be handed over to the Ministry of Transport, that is the arrangement we have with our good friends at UNDP who have gotten the funding from the European Union and as I’ve said in the past we’re grateful to the people of the European Union for investing their tax dollars in this project with us here in Belize.”

Thomas Shaw, President of the BBA, acknowledged that the release contained inaccurate and unverified information. He noted that the operators are calling for the government to release the criteria specified by the UNDP to be released to the public