Cash-strapped City Hall manages to reduce $100M garbage collection debt

…to self-collect garage in 3 of 11 wards

Despite complaining of being cash-strapped and begging the Government for a bailout, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is ringing in the New Year with a deep debt off its shoulders.
According to Deputy Mayor Alfred Mentore, the M&CC has been able to significantly clear its $100 million debt to garbage collection contractors.
Late last year, Mayor Ubraj Narine had disclosed that the M&CC was facing over half a billion dollars in debt which was still piling up. Of this sum, he said that $100 million was owed to garbage collection contractors, $400 million was owed to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and over $20 million in retroactive salaries was owed to staffers of the City Constabulary.
When contacted on Monday, Deputy Mayor Mentore said, “We are nearly complete on the payments to those [garbage collection] contractors for the end of December last year. So, that amount [$100 million] that was presented, then we have brought that down significantly to the point where we are to the point of completing those payments.”
He was, however, unable to pinpoint the exact sum that has so far been paid to the contractors, but disclosed that it included payments to Cevons Waste Management and Purans Brothers. These contractors were operating under a five-year contract that ended in 2020.
When contacted on Monday for details on the payout to the garbage collection contractors, City Treasurer John Douglas said that he needed time to get the information. However, subsequent calls to him went unanswered.
The M&CC has always claimed that it was cash-strapped. Shortly after the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) took office, the municipality had asked Government for a bailout.

Paying taxes
When asked where the Council sourced money from to pay these contractors, Mentore said, “People are always paying taxes. But we were always behind, because we inherited a lot of debts from previous Councils.”

Tender for solid waste
Now that this debt has been cleared, Mentore said that the Council has reopened the tender process for solid waste collection in the capital city. Bids will open and close next Tuesday, January 12, 2020. “We are revisiting the new tender process for the long haul. We are on a month-to-month basis until there is a new contract period put in place for all the contractors,” he explained.
City Hall has publicised its engineer’s estimate for monthly garbage collection within eight of the 11 wards in Georgetown. It amounts to $11,752,999. The monthly costs are as follows: Ward One, $1,352,000; Ward Four, $1,356,333; Ward Five, $1,534,000; Ward Six, $1,326,000; Ward Seven, $1,352,000; Ward Nine, $1,451,666; Ward 10, $1,889,333 and Ward 11, $1,464,667.
For 2021, Mentore said the Council would be doing its own garage collection in three of the 11 wards. He explained that this would significantly reduce the cost of solid waste collection in the city.
“Council will pick up garbage or do about three of the wards, so that will reduce cost significantly. Because of our ability not only to acquire certain trucks, but to get those trucks donated by the Ministry of Local Government. We have new trucks and they are in good working condition.”
He said that the new engineer’s estimate for the wards has significantly reduced the costs. “It will be a lot more manageable for us to do those wards, for us to carry the responsibility of dealing with it.”
Over the years, City Hall has come in for heavy criticism over the management of its finances and its wasteful spending which has left it in monstrous debts.