?We have to put it up for public auction and if the price is not right from the private sector, then the Government will have to step in and buy it,? said Musa.
Who are the interested buyers, we asked.
?I don?t know who will be bidding. Certainly National Transport might bid, Gilharry?James,? he told us. He added that Zabaneh is out of it completely.
We asked how soon does Government expect to have a permanent solution in place.
He said that, ?It can be done in a matter of weeks ? we hope by the latest the middle of February.?
According to him, there will be no other move towards a transportation monopoly.
?We want to assure Amandala readers that there is no intention to going back to a monopoly situation and there is no intention of giving any special treatment to any person, including the Novelos. We need to make sure this thing is done in a very objective and dispassionate way,? he said.
However, the Novelo brothers are not backing down on their bid to regain major control over the transportation system. Amandala yesterday received a copy of a letter that the Novelo brothers, David and Tony, wrote to Transport Minister, Hon. Joe Coye, proposing a possible solution to the present transportation crisis.
Again the brothers say that it was not their fault that they could not repay the $30 million that their company, Novelo Bus Line, owes the Development Finance Corporation. They insist that fuel prices, and Government?s decision to give licenses to several other bus companies, caused the bus company to fold.
After Novelo Bus Line fell into receivership in March 2004, the DFC and Atlantic Bank took control of the company, but shut down after making the same complaint against GOB?that it was issuing too many permits to other bus companies. Their main contention was GOB?s decision to license National Transport Services Limited, the new company of the Novelo brothers.
Now, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Hon. Said Musa, expects that this new company will be among one of the prime bidders to purchase the assets of Novelo Bus Line, when they are auctioned off.
Tony Novelo has submitted a filing with the Supreme Court, calling on the court to order Government to honor a 15-year exclusive franchise agreement that former Transport Minister, Hon. Maxwell Samuels, gave the brothers in December 2002.
However, the Prime Minister said that the contract is no good.
?The opposition [of GOB to that contract] was made known from day one about that. As far as we are concerned it?s not a legally binding contract. It was a matter in negotiation; it was not brought to fruition, and I would find it hard for them now to be raising that, when they themselves admitted at the time that it was not a valid contract,? Musa told us.
We asked him whether there is any legal recourse for dealing with a Minister who exceeds his authority by giving a contract that he had no right to give?
?There is a legal recourse and that is not to have that Minister in the Cabinet,? he responded.
That?s the only legal recourse? We further asked.
?Legally, yes! I would think so, yes. Because if he is acting in good faith, if he believes that it is the right thing to do, what is the criminality involved here? I don?t see any. No. I don?t,? he added.
We asked him whether he would have the same opinion if the company to whom the contract was given was not even a legal entity at the time.
?That?s an illegality, not a criminality,? he responded. ?And that would work to the detriment of the company. If it doesn?t exist, then you can?t have a legal contract.?
In their proposal to Minister Coye, the Novelo brothers say that they are in the process of investing $6 million in new buses ? 50 Blue Bird buses and 35 MCI buses. They want GOB to extend their 1-month temporary permits to the full two years permitted, but at the same time they are calling on GOB to not issue any other permits ?in the interest of maximizing the debt servicing capacity of the company.?
They argue that the more permits GOB gives out, the less likely DFC would be to collect its $30 million.
Of course, as we noted earlier, DFC has announced its plans to liquidate. As well, they have filed a claim in the Supreme Court to recover money from the individuals who had each signed personal guarantees to pay. However, the Novelo family?s attorneys, Elrington and Waite, say that the brothers will defend the DFC?s claim?which they reject.