The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has added to its outstanding debts to various entities with some $150 million being owed to its two major solid waste collectors, Puran Brothers Disposal and Cevon’s Waste Management.
City Hall
During a visit to the Haags Bosch landfill site on Monday, senior representatives of the solid waste management companies indicated that they have not been paid for services to the Council since the second quarter of 2018.
The outstanding payment due to Puran Brothers Disposal is about $73 million, while Cevon’s Waste Disposal is owed $75 million.
“We have an outstanding $73 million, and that’s for services provided within the period of June to date. So far, we haven’t got any positive outcome on the way forward in receiving payments,” General Manager of Puran Brothers Disposal, Khalesh Puran, disclosed.
General Manager of Puran Brothers Disposal, Khalesh Puran
Business Development Supervisor of Cevon’s Waste Management, Morris Archer, also nodded at the rates which have not been paid. He explained, “City Hall owes us $75 million, and that reflects from payments due from May 2018 to current.”
It was indicated that the companies have been engaged in discussion with the Council on numerous occasions, but there has not been any fruitful discussion on how these payments would be made. This has resulted in the companies contemplating whether they would provide services for another month, given that severe losses are being incurred for operational costs and payments to employees.
These expenses will increase during the upcoming holiday season, and it is more than likely that the collectors would cease operating until they are paid, this newspaper was told.
“We are contemplating a way forward together, because it’s affecting our working capital. To work for four months without receiving payments is kinda tough on us, because it’s a lot of costs behind these services that we provide,” Puran posited.
For one of the collectors, the monthly operational expenditures is somewhere around $15 million.
Business Development Supervisor of Cevon’s, Morris Archer
A letter has been sent to the Communities Ministry, alerting officials there about the situation with the objective that these monies would be paid before the ending of 2018.
This information comes at a time when the administrative body at City Hall is being probed for mismanagement of funds. There are also some instances when large sums of money received have been unaccounted for.
City Hall’s financial woes date back to many instances when both Puran Brothers and Cevon’s were left with no other option than to withdraw their services until outstanding payments have been liquidated. Staffers have been retrenched and later rehired whenever this option has been exercised.
For the past months, there have been talks in regard to implementing a fee for routine garbage collection in Georgetown; this is presently done at no cost attached. (Rupadai Seenaraine)
