By Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
Millwood
SINCE RETURNING from England in 1977, Ezroy Millwood has consistently made headlines. He was back in the spotlight Monday when the Supreme Court overturned last October's $10 billion award to his National Transport Co-operative Society (NTCS) in favour of the Government.
To rub salt into the wound, Mr. Justice Patrick Brooks ordered the NTCS to pay the Government's legal fees which reportedly cost millions of dollars. The ruling has the combative businessman wondering whether he made the right decision to come back to Jamaica.
"I did not know that my country would be so hostile to me when it comes to justice. For the first time I feel I did a wrong thing coming back to Jamaica," Mr. Millwood told The Sunday Gleaner last week.
NTCS' NEXT MOVE
Mr. Millwood, 61, declined to outline the NTCS' next move, but the company's legal team, which includes Lord Anthony Gifford and Patrick Bailey, says it will launch an appeal. In October last year, Mr. Millwood and NTCS members were kicking their heels after an arbitration panel ordered Government to pay the transport company a staggering $4.5 billion. The amount swelled to nearly $10 billion when interest was added. The arbitration panel of Boyd Carey, Ira Rowe and Angella Hudson-Phillips agreed that the NTCS and its over 500 members lost millions of dollars when Government bought out the last five years of its contract with that company to start the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC).
On Monday, Transport Minister Robert Pickersgill said Mr. Justice Brooks' ruling was justified.
"I know that in the first instance the lawyers were disappointed with the award but certainly from where I stood the award was excessive," he said.
The Minister added that Government was prepared to compromise with the NTCS but Mr. Millwood scoffed at the offer, saying Mr. Pickersgill had no integrity.
"The attitude of the Government is that we are roaches. From day one we were not treated with respected," said an angry Mr. Millwood.
As for the 175 members of the NTCS, the chunky Millwood told The Sunday Gleaner that he has their full backing.
"Them sey, 'Pres, wi know the fight is on and the battle is rough but we are with you'," said Mr. Millwood.
The NTCS was given a mandate by Government to become the Corporate Area's official transport company in 1995. But shortly after its fleet hit the roads, passengers complained of poor service, crammed conditions and music blaring on the buses.
PUBLIC'S OUTCRY
Six years later, Government heeded the public's outcry, bought out of its contract with the NTCS and launched the JUTC. Mr. Millwood says had the NTCS got similar financial support, the company would have been a success.
"We spend $7 billion for what (JUTC) we have out there now, then we have the infrastructure that has been put in for them," he reasoned. "Yet, the JUTC still owes billions for the revenue that they have not paid over, because they are having monetary problems. We have never boasted about a good service but what we offered was the best under the conditions that prevailed."
Born in rural Dallas Castle, St. Andrew, Ezroy Millwood emigrated to England in 1960. He says he was working in the British transportation system when Prime Minister Michael Manley visited the United Kingdom in 1977 and encouraged young Jamaicans living there to return home and help build the agricultural and transportation sectors.
TRANSPORT TIES
Back in Jamaica, Millwood maintained his transportation ties by driving his six-wheel Transit van for 15 months. Eventually, he owned six mini-vans and in April 1980 he became one of the original members of the Jamaica Mini-Bus Association. His biggest assignment, however, was the NTCS which is still dogged by negative stories like buses racing and conductors hanging from vehicles.
In April it was reported that conductors were having sex with schoolgirls on buses but Mr. Millwood said he had no evidence of this occurring on any of his buses.
Despited its notoriety, Mr. Millwood is optimistic the NTCS will bounce back from its latest dilemma.
"I am not accepting this judgment as a sober or balanced one. I know that out of all of this we can become more united," he said.
