MEMBERS of the United Minibus Union (UMU) are challenging recent remarks and actions by the town clerk, stating that the right procedure was not followed in the exclusive marking of the University of Guyana (UG)-Industry bus park.

Meeting with the newspaper, UMU President Eon Andrews and UMU Branch Chairman of UG Transport Service Mark De Lima, said that the matter could have been dealt with in a much more civil manner.

These comments are in reference to the Mayor and City Council’s move to give Industry bus operators exclusive parking on the UG-Industry park after they had complained about being “pushed out of business” by UG-Industry minibus operators.
Andrews said that it is “very strange” that the City Council, which refuses to meet with the union, would take the word of a group of minibus operators as “gospel” without engaging other parties to verify the claims.

He said, too, that the town clerk had failed to take the standard operational procedure of apprising the Engineering Department, presenting the matter to the City Works and Public Health Committee meeting agenda and, finally, securing approval before moving forward.
“There is no guarantee that the council’s statutory [meeting] would have approved his unilateral action. He is the Clerk of the Council which is an administrative function. The town clerk is not vested with executive authority,” he said.

Added to this, Andrews said that causing further confusion, nothing was discussed with the Guyana Police Force ‘A’ Division which only became aware of the changes through the media.

The UMU believes that it is being subjected to the effects of a personal grudge of the town clerk and De Lima put forward what he believes is the proof to support this.
He said that when the City Council came into power they began charging minibus drivers “$200 per day for supposedly parking” and while the money may also be attributed as the cost for the upkeep of the park, this has never been done.

De Lima presented an approximate figure of the total monies collected from minibus operators by City Hall, which he said has not been used to improve the location which is prone to flooding.

“If you calculate the amount of money that is gained from the UG Park, $200 a head x 46 buses is $9,200 a day. Then $9,200 a day x 30 days average equals to $276,000 they’re receiving per month from the UG park and nothing has been done, period,” he said.
He then said that the average nine Industry buses on the park paying $3,500 each to the City Council per month equals to $31,500 per month, which does not add up to much, compared to the aforementioned $276,000, and proves that there is ill-motive involved.

“You mean to tell me the Mayor and City Council would throw away that amount of money for nine buses? Does that make any sense to anyone? All this shows that these people have personal agendas where the UG bus service and minibus union is concerned,” he said.

Added to this, Andrews said that at any given point, the UG-Industry park can only hold an average of 12 buses and when the nine from Industry utilise the awarded exclusive spot, this leaves only three for the remaining 46 UG-Industry buses.

He then reminded that the reason the Industry bus operators are in the present situation is a result of their ill-behaviour.
“The nine bus operators that are claiming that they were being pushed out of business obviously presented a very pitiful exaggeration with the desired effect of evoking sympathy from the mayor.

“However, I would like to reiterate that the nine operators were bona fide members of the United Minibus Union UG branch; and some were even senior branch executives who were found guilty of gross indiscipline that constituted a breach of the UG Branch Code of Conduct that caused them to be suspended and they lost the right to operate on the campus of the University of Guyana,” he said.

The men said, too, that it is still possible for the delinquent operators to rejoin the union, but they must first make a complete change in behaviour as opposed to seeking “twist and turn law and order for pity.”