Former bus co-op chairman defends action
The latest controversy in the transport industry has climaxed with one bus company assuming management of an upstart cooperative. According to David Novelo, on Friday evening and in coordination with the Department of Transport, his company, National Transport Limited, repossessed the dozen vehicles that had been leased to the members and started running all the co-op’s routes. On the heels of the takeover, tonight we understand that the Atlantic Bank has also initiated legal proceedings against the cooperative to recover the twenty-six hundred dollars loaned to each member in working capital. According to our sources, that case has been set for hearing on August eighteenth. The plight of the bus drivers faced with impending receivership dominated the headlines for several days. But while the members of the Belize Bus Owners Cooperative have focused their frustration on the actions of the former chairman, Wayne Myers, this afternoon Myers maintained that the decision to sign a legally binding contract with the Novelo group was a resolution approved by the co-op’s board and members.
Wayne Myers, Former Chairman, BBOC
“I just like to clear my name. A cooperative cannot operate without an executive body. The executive body have to come to a decision, a vote, and by the majority it stands, and that was what happened.”
Janelle Chanona
“You do realise that a lot of blame is coming back to you and you alone.”
Wayne Myers
“Well you have to expect that when it comes to those guys because they are set from day one, from receivership to Novelo’s Bus Line, if you check their records, all of them have a problem with authority and I just inherit them and I have to live with it.”
Janelle Chanona
“Was the company, the co-op, finally viable?”
Wayne Myers
“Yes we were very viable for a point, but we were sustaining barely, day by day. We make a fair amount, but we didn’t go into bills. We have a hundred and seventy-eight thousand dollars in debt, we had to clear that. No matter who was the chairman, we had to clear that debt. When Mr. Balona say that so much thousand dollars is missing, he have to understand—yes the money was coming in but it have to go back out in bills. We have to pay our bills. Bus does not run on water; they need lube, fuel, tyres, and they were getting them to time. I was seeing to it that all the buses were staying on the road and assuring them, the public, that the buses would be out there. The drivers had their part to do; I only can do so much.”
Janelle Chanona
“And you kept receipts to show where this money was going?”
Wayne Myers
“Yes. Any of the members could have come in any time, go to the secretary, and the printout was there on the computer, a daily tally of what’s coming in, what’s going out. It takes two signatures to sign a check so nothing can’t come out by itself, everything is accounted for.”
Janelle Chanona
“Mr. Myers in your estimation, can the co-op be viable? Can this thing work?”
Wayne Myers
“Honestly. No, because no matter what, if you put any chairman there the members will always retaliate because there is a greed, for whatever I don’t know because as soon as they see someone take over and its working they want more and it’s just go down the drain from there.”
According to Myers, when he resigned twenty-eight members of the cooperative left with him and are today working with National Transport. And while that company has assumed management of the cooperative, today we were unable to confirm whether Atlantic Bank will be pursuing National Transport and or the Belize Bus Owners Cooperative for payment of the funds owed to that institution.
