The NBLL ?headache? refers to the $30 million public debt that the bus monopoly has with the Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and the $15 million debt with the Atlantic Bank. The collateral offered for these sizeable loans includes the terminals and licenses owned by NBLL, along with numerous personal assets belonging to the Novelo family.

In addition to creating transportation zones, the committee?s proposal suggests that the NBLL terminals, buses and other equipment, but mainly the NBLL bus licenses that correspond to each of the proposed zones be sold.

Minister of Transport, Hon. Cordel Hyde, told Amandala this morning that the terminals and licenses presently owned by the NBLL are being offered for sale to the current northern and southern bus operators on a preferential basis, but that two conditions should be met.

The first condition is that the current northern and southern bus operators either band together as an alliance, or as a cooperative to purchase the terminals and licenses. The other condition the interested operators must meet in order to assume ownership of the NBLL transportation-related assets, Hyde said, is to improve on the quality of equipment used on those runs, preferably by investing in new buses.

Hyde noted that there are presently 58 other bus operators, aside from NBLL. If the current bus operators on the northern and southern routes refuse to comply with the conditions proposed, then the assets in question would be offered for public tender and auctioned.

Hyde said, however, that public tender is not the first option for the Government of Belize, because they want to give the present operators on those routes the opportunity to expand, but at the same time, commuters have to benefit from the change in the industry.

Where the other two proposed zones are concerned, the western, and Belize City and cruise tourism routes, Hyde said that those would automatically be offered for public tender. The rationale behind the immediate offer for public tender is that there is currently not a significant number of operators who do these runs. And in the interest of transparency, it was felt that the western, and Belize City and cruise tourism runs should be offered for public tender, Hyde continued.

Whoever the successful bidders are for the respective zone terminals and routes, they would be given the licenses for the zone routes for 15 years. While the Cabinet briefing said that the licenses would be given on an ?exclusive? basis for the 15 years, Hyde said that the smaller operators, who do not use the opportunity to expand, would still be allowed to keep their present routes.

Hyde said that to ensure that operators adhere to the routes allowed by their licenses, the Department of Transport would need to be strengthened ? a point on which Cabinet has agreed.

In the matter of the western route, the Novelo brothers, David and Antonio (owners of NBLL) have expressed their interest in acquiring the licenses and terminals. Yesterday afternoon Amandala spoke to David Novelo, who explained that they (the Novelo family) would make their bid for their NBLL western assets through their company, Transit Services Limited, another Novelo company. David noted that Transit Services Limited has brought in several buses, but they have not been able to get licenses to operate them.

The Novelo family had used the assets that GOB now proposes to sell as collateral for their DFC loan.

Amandala asked both Hyde and Novelo to comment on the matter of NBLL?s public debt to DFC, and both agreed that the value of the DFC collateral that NBLL used exceeds the value of the DFC loan.

In September, in an interview with the newspaper, the Novelo brothers had said that the family had put up more than $90 million as collateral for their DFC and Atlantic Bank loans. Of importance, the Novelo brothers maintain that they offered different assets as collateral for their DFC and Atlantic Bank loans.

Novelo told the newspaper yesterday that at least 86 properties were used as collateral on both loans, which ensured that both loans were more than covered. With this in mind, however, Novelo told Amandala that his family is also considering that their assets might not be sold for their true value on the market because the receivership has caused their assets, like their buses, to erode.

And while Hyde agreed that the value of the NBLL collateral originally put up by the Novelo brothers exceeds the DFC loan, he noted that the current market conditions must also be considered. And with that in mind, it is difficult to say whether the assets that would be sold would be enough to cover the DFC loan.

Minister Hyde made it clear that the primary concern is for an improvement in the quality of the public transportation system, while ensuring that it is affordable for the commuters.

The offer to the bus operators will only be on the table for at most three weeks, said Hyde, then it would be offered for public tender. Hyde plans to meet with the operators in the near future.

In March of this year, NBLL under the management of owners David and Antonio Novelo, was unable to meet its debt obligations and was placed in the receivership of Kevin Castillo, a public auctioneer.