BBA Cries Foul; Political Favoritism Alleged in Advisory Appointment

The Belizean Bus Association is calling out Minister of Transport, Doctor Louis Zabaneh, accusing him of playing politics and acting in bad faith. At the heart of the controversy is the newly formed pro temp advisory committee for the National Bus Company. One of its members, Oswin Blease, owner of Fu We Transport, was appointed to represent bus operators. Here’s where things get interesting: the BBA says Blease isn’t one of them. In fact, they claim he’s a newcomer with little experience and a strong political affiliation to the ruling party. So, is this a strategic move to sideline the BBA’s voice? We put that question directly to Minister Zabaneh today.

 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport

“What happened in the past couple of weeks is that we have been getting quite a number of bus operators coming in to sign on to this phase of the process that will see their operations audited by professional auditors they chose from a subcommittee. We then decide we will form an advisory committee of the same stakeholders we have been talking with over the past two months or so. We have already published the list of the members of that committee that would include the unions represented by the NTUCB, membership from other government entities that will be helpful like MIDH, Ministry of Economic Transformation, the statistical institute of Belize. We want to make sure we have quite a bit of professional input and continued communication from UB as well, who were on that committee. Mr. Oswin Blease was chosen as one of the members of the operators who signed on to be the person with that perspective of the operators on the committee. Then we saw this press release from the BBA with respect to that choice. So that is an unfortunate interpretation from their end. It was not with the intent to disrespect them in anyway.”