At 6:00 pm this evening, these Novelo's Buses were among the last to leave from the company's main terminal on West Collet Canal in Belize City. That's because tonight, the Novelo's receivership has closed down. A release from the company issued just before newstime says that it has been forced to suspend operations. The release goes on to blame government for the shutdown, explaining that the company has experienced unsustainable financial losses because government issued new road permits to national transport; because the government allowed sniper runs to proliferate; and because the government failed to stop sniper runs originating from in front of Novelo's Bus terminals countrywide.
Now, Novelo's says it can no longer maintain operations and sends an apology to its 318 employees and their families as well as the commuters and the general public. Calling it an "unavoidable crisis", the management says it will continue to work with government to resume normal operations. But for its part, government is hardly convinced.
In its own late evening release, the Ministry of Transport says that Novelo's receiver Kevin Castillo broke off talks at 5:00 pm. Now, the Belize Transport Board has launched a contingency plan to, "ensure that the needs of the commuting public are met. That means issuing road service permits to other providers to fill the gaps. According to the Ministry release, "an adequate level of service will be available to ensure continued safe and regular transport." That's a necessary commitment, but tonight it's only words and tomorrow commuters would be well advised to hope for the best but expect anything.
For background, as we reported last night, Atlantic Bank pulled the plug on the receivership last week and left government holding the bag. As of last week, the understanding was that the government would at least be paying the bus company's weekly fuel bills and the receivership managers of Bob Garcia, Kevin Castillo and John Flowers would stay on until the end of the month. But it seems government did not pay for the gas and tonight our reports say that the fuel supply is finished, leaving the Novelo's receivership out of money, out of gas and out of time...and commuters who just want a regular, reasonably comfortable ride, well, they're just out of luck. Bad enough, but it's much worse for the Novelo's 318 employees, who are out of a job.
