Jelgava Bus Park starts washing buses in-house; deputy mayor criticizes previous contractor
Municipal company "Jelgavas autobusu parks" has begun washing city buses itself this summer. Deputy mayor Mārtiņš Štāls says the previous contractor's profit was essentially a price increase that could have been avoided.
This summer, the municipal company "Jelgavas autobusu parks" (JAP) started washing city buses in-house. The municipality considers this the most economically reasonable way to provide clean buses for Jelgava residents.
At a Jelgava City Council press conference this week, deputy mayor Mārtiņš Štāls said that the coalition had started addressing JAP's problems last November, but things are not progressing as quickly as desired. He noted that the bus washer's profit alone indicates inefficiency in this matter.
"JBR Group's profit from 2017 to 2025 is essentially a price increase that could have been avoided if JAP had invested in its own bus washing hangar, purchased washing tunnels, and hired washers," Štāls believes. He explained that JBR Group provided services on the premises of the municipally owned bus park.
The deputy mayor mentioned that shortly after the 2025 municipal elections, JAP board member Gints Burks commissioned a legal study to determine whether there would be legal consequences for terminating the contract with JBR Group. It turned out that there were no legal repercussions.
Štāls informed that JAP, taking a bank loan, bought back the bus washing equipment from JBR Group for 296 thousand euros.
