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In a recent interview, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Transportation, Chester Williams, confirmed that the legal framework for the company was developed with assistance from the law firm Courtney and Coye. He noted that the company was formally incorporated around mid-February, clearing the way for operations to begin. Addressing questions about the structure of the deal, Zabaneh emphasized that the government did not pay lump-sum buyouts to private bus owners. Instead, he explained, the operators who joined the NBC have become shareholders in the company, a feature the government says preserves private sector participation.
Dr. Louis Zabaneh , Minister of Transport: “Remember the public-private partnership, which is now the National Bus Company, is comprised of investments from the 17 operators that are now a part of the National Bus Company and the Government of Belize. Once they become shareholders in the company then, like any private company, you have a dividend flow. At the end of any particular period whether it’s monthly or annually you have the profits of the company. The board decides on how much will be retained and how much will be given out as dividends and that is where they get monthly flows or periodic flows coming from their investment. Also so some of them decided that they want to sell some of their shares to other operators. So in those cases, there are a couple two or three of them that are selling out completely to other operators and then there are a number of them who are selling parts or a portion of their shares. So that is between them among the actual operators for them to decide who wants to sell to who. The government has only invested up to this point for the start-up of the whole operations, you know, working on the legal documentation and all the years work that we have done. So that’s part of government’s contribution and the terminals that go into the company. So that’s government’s contribution. It is not that government is buying out the operators and then the operators move away. Many of the operators remain as shareholders of this company, which is great for the future viability of the company because they are still invested in there.”
Minister Dr. Zabaneh noted that the operators who have not yet joined the NBC will continue to function on the margins of the system as the phased integration proceeds, while the ministry maintains that the gradual rollout is designed to minimize disruption and steadily modernize Belize’s public transportation network. The Ministry of Transportation says it will continue consultations with remaining operators as the National Bus Company expands in the months ahead. As a matter of fact, a meeting was held this afternoon in Belize City with the remaining bus operators who opted out of the PP partnership.
Dr. Louis Zabaneh , Minister of Transport: “Those who decide not to be a part of the National Bus Company, that is quite fine. They just need to step up to the plate and start to provide the quality service that we are also supplying in the National Bus Company. Therefore once they can do that then power to them. We encourage that. However we are going to be enforcing. We have gradually started over the past few months so it’s not new. Tightening up, making sure that the buses have for example spare tires, they have protection for fires etc that could occur, safety measures that will improve the quality of the buses and the safety to our customers. So all of those things will now be enforced and they all know that and if they are able to do it then that is what we are aiming for. We’re about to meet with the Belize Bus Association, the other 14 are members of that association. We’ve met with them, we’ve kept in communication with them. One of the things that we have discussed at cabinet, and I’ll be putting forward a cabinet paper, is that by a certain period of time all buses, intercity buses meaning that go between towns and cities, not the village runs, not the school bus runs or the charters as yet. We’re going to have to look at those as groupings, but now the intercity runs. At some point we want to have them all on the same standards and it’s possible that we could have a decision where by a certain period of time, maybe in five years time, that they all must be electric buses and have a a certain standard. So these are things that we will be looking at because we can’t have a system where one entity is providing a very high standard of service and then everybody else has to suffer. They have to step up to the plate.”
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