Transport authorities pulled the Belize Bus Owners Cooperative (BBOC) off the highway on Saturday, and early that morning two of their drivers got $100 tickets for embarking on runs that they say had been taken away from them and given to National Transport Services Limited (NTSL), owned by the Novelo brothers, David and Tony.
This afternoon nine of the 30 members of the BBOC visited our newspaper to tell their story, and to publicly question, where is the money?
Cyril Wade told Amandala that former BBOC chairman, Wayne Myers, hired him in February to drive for BBOC, using one of 11 buses Myers had leased from Novelo’s NTSL. He said that he had worked for two and half months and during that period paid a total of $5,300 into BBOC. He said that one day in April, he questioned how the money in BBOC was being spent. He never got an answer, but shortly afterwards received a directive to park the bus.
Wade said that at the time he was preparing for a run from Benque to Belize City, and when he eventually arrived in the City he parked the bus on the Novelo compound. He claims that he was later invited to sign a contract to work with NTSL, but instead he remained with the BBOC and paid his $500 membership fee to become a full-fledged member.
Since Saturday, Wade and 29 other BBOC members have been out of work.
“We want the Prime Minister to know that there are 30 people out here with families who are jobless,” said BBOC member, Maria Rodriguez.
The members say that out of the money they earned on their runs for the past several months, they used to purchase fuel and parts, pay for repairs, and pay the salaries of conductors and themselves. In addition, they had to pay in $100 to BBOC everyday, and there were some days that they could not pay themselves. This system, they said, was implemented under Myers.
The members said that they were told that the monies they were paying into the coop was to pay utility bills and the lease of the Novelo buses; however, they claim there was never any full account given to them of how the monies were spent.
Today we spoke with Hugo Miranda, Acting Registrar of Cooperatives, who told us that since last June the Coop Department has been working with the BBOC to improve its accounting system. In October 2006 and in February 2007, the coop received two complaints, the first under Myers’ tenure alleging that $176,000 had previously gone missing. The second report alleged that another $24,000 was unaccounted for. There has so far been no report coming out of those investigations.
Miranda told us that he is scheduled to meet with Gian Ghandi, legal advisor in the Ministry of Finance on Friday morning, and he plans to meet with BBOC execs in the afternoon to relay the legal position on the issues relating to the contract and the coop’s financial challenges.
While Miranda declined to discuss the specifics of the lease agreement between BBOC and NTSL, he did tell us that Myers was not the only person who signed. According to him, there were four signatories on the document—three other executives apart from Myers.
We asked the BBOC members, where do you go from here?
“Court!” they emphatically replied.
They want the court to grant an injunction on the Transport Department’s decision to remove them off the road. The BBOC has asked attorney Lois Young to fight the case on their behalf.
“Our last run should be May 2008. We paid $11,000 for our permits. So we have two years,” said BBOC secretary, Freddy Ayala.
Last Thursday NTSL principal, David Novelo, told us that because the BBOC had failed to honor its agreement to pay for the buses they had been leasing from his company and to repay money they had borrowed from Novelo to pay their bills, his company NTSL has now assumed control of the cooperative.
NTSL had issued a press release claiming that because BBOC did not meet their debts to the NTSL, “the BBOC has transferred its operations to NTSL with all rights and obligations,” including the road service permits.
Novelo had claimed that BBOC has not made a single payment on the buses. Apart from that, when BBOC was unable to pay its bills to Social Security and SOL (formerly Shell), the Novelos loaned them money, he added.
Members now say that apart from the legality of the contract between BBOC and NTSL, a major matter that needs to be ironed out is how much is really owed to the Novelos.
Novelo had declined to give us an exact figure when we last spoke; however, members quote a figure of $250,000 which they say is being claimed against BBOC. That figure, they say, has to be investigated as they have no clue how the tab came to be so exorbitant between February and now.
Aside from these financial obligations, about 11 BBOC drivers still have loan agreements with Atlantic Bank for buses that were leased from them. But with their not being allowed to run those buses as of last Saturday, July 7, they are very concerned how they are going to meet payments to the bank.
The BBOC members are now rallying for public support. Some members told us that they are calling for a boycott of NTSL services, and in the days to come they will be planning a protest.
Member Evan Bowden said that they are concerned that the Department of Transport has made a decision on a matter that should really be decided in a court of law.
Members say that they have done nothing that warrants the Department of Transport’s actions to take them off the road, as the issue between them and the Novelo is a financial one and they have not in any way violated any of the conditions of their permits.
“I guess the Novelos know how the Belizean people feel now, because they say BBOC owes then $250,000. That is just a small portion of the $30 million they owe [the Belizean public],” said Rodriguez.
“Don’t take away from the poor to give to the rich,” said Austin Martinez, BBOC councilor.