Special negotiators selected to choose winning bid

The 33 new electric buses on the island’s roads were purchased by the Government at a cost of $20 million following a transparent and open tendering process, Acting General Manager of the Barbados Transport Board (BTB) Lynda Holder has disclosed.

Amid speculation about the cost for the buses, she explained on Starcom Network’s Down to Brasstacks that there was a fixed sum vested for purchasing the vehicles, putting in the infrastructure to accommodate them, facilitating training and assisting with upgrades required to existing facilities.

“But the buses themselves came in at approximately US$10 million, so let’s say BDS$20 million for 33 buses,” she said.

Holder said the BTB sent out a tender in August 2019, indicating its intention to purchase new buses, and it even introduced a new concept, a College of Negotiators, to make sure the process remained transparent.

She said neither the BTB nor the Board of Directors was involved in the selection of the winning bid.

“The College of Negotiators was conceptualized because we didn’t think that at Transport Board we would have had the technical expertise to make a decision at that level. We engaged, through our Board of Directors and our parent Ministry, a group of professionals, including lawyers, electrical technicians, financiers . . . who then would have assessed the value of the bid to see if that would have been in the best interest of the country of Barbados to take that particularly bid,” Holder explained.

“When that group went through all of the processes and did the evaluation, then a winning bid was selected. And there were a number of persons, but the winning bidders ended up being BYD, which stands for Build Your Dream, and that company is actually the leading producer of electric public transit or any type of mobility, in the world at this point in time and for sure in this side of the world.”

Holder also shared that emergency response agencies, including the Barbados Fire and Ambulance Services and the Barbados Defence Force, as well as other service providers were involved in extensive training sessions related to the operation of the buses.

She said it was critical for such a wide cross-section of persons to be exposed to the training in event there was an emergency and swift action had to be taken.

“The buses are quiet and this is one of the areas that we wanted the public to be aware of. Whereas you were accustomed to hearing the buses coming up behind you, with these buses you will not have that.

“So, as part of our in-house training, we are now teaching our drivers that when you get to a bus stop, instead of waiting for someone to extend their arm, we are pausing at the bus stop so that persons can get accustomed to these buses coming up behind them.

“We had already engaged the Barbados Council for the Disabled and we have taken that further. We will be going out with them again. I am actually speaking at one of the upcoming meetings this month and we will be going out with the National Society for the Blind as well,” Holder added. (anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)