During a Saturday appearance on the popular local radio program the Browne and Browne Show, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne confirmed that the fleet of motorcycles and high-end executive vans procured to support the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will not be decommissioned or discarded after the summit, but will instead be retained for long-term public use across the twin-island nation. Browne framed the vehicle fleet as a tangible, enduring legacy of the country’s successful CHOGM hosting, noting that the vast majority of motorcycles now visible on local roadways are part of the official government fleet acquired for the summit. The prime minister emphasized that the executive passenger vans will be prioritized for use at upcoming national and regional conferences, alongside a wide range of other official government operations. In a further show of regional solidarity, Browne floated a new proposal to lend roughly a dozen of the official motorcycles to fellow Caribbean nations when they host major international gatherings of a similar scale, to help reduce their event operational costs. At the time of the announcement, no formal bilateral lending agreement had been finalized, and no specific Caribbean country had been named as a recipient of the proposed loan support. The prime minister’s remarks formed part of a broader public defense of the total costs associated with hosting CHOGM, during which he detailed the financial contributions provided by partner foreign governments and third-party donors to offset event expenses. He confirmed that a US$1 million contribution from an unnamed partner foreign government was specifically allocated to cover the purchase of the motorcycles and executive vans. Browne noted that the full scope of summit preparations included both procured vehicles and donated assets, but did not release a complete, itemized inventory that differentiates between vehicles donated directly to the government, those purchased with grant funding, and those acquired using domestic public resources. He also declined to disclose the total combined price tag for the entire vehicle fleet, name the specific government agencies that will take over long-term management of the assets, or lay out formal allocation rules for distributing the vehicles across different public sector departments. Throughout his address, Browne repeatedly positioned the repurposing of CHOGM-acquired equipment as a core component of the summit’s long-term public value, arguing that investing in reusable, multi-purpose infrastructure ensures the event delivers sustained benefits to local residents long after international delegates have departed.
Antigua and Barbuda to retain CHOGM vehicles for future conferences, PM says
