Georgetown Mayor approves $4.4M surplus budget for city

For the first time in over 30 years, the municipality of Georgetown has a surplus budget of $4.4 million which will see monies being pumped into three major areas to improve the city’s overall functions.

Director of Solid Waste Management, Walter Narine took to social media to share the good news.
Guyana Times understands that the three main areas of focus will be drainage through the Engineer’s Department, public health, and solid waste management.
Narine, in his post, noted, “We are confident that with the provisions in this year’s budget, the citizens of our dear city will benefit tremendously: more green spaces will be created and we will be on our way to restoring the city as the Garden City of the Caribbean.”
The city has been grappling over the years with properly managing its solid waste.
In fact, it was only in March of this year that the outstanding balance of $80 million owed since 2018 to solid waste collectors contracted to the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) was finally paid.
On November 25, 2018, the collectors Puran Brothers Disposal Services and Cevons Waste Management withdrew their services after months of operating without payments. Immediately after the withdrawal, services were provided by five agencies namely: Granderson, Trash Tech, Tri Star, C&S Services, and Garbage Eaters.
The deadlock between the Council and contractors had many implications on the collection process within the capital city as residential and commercial areas were piled high with garbage just a few days after this decision was taken.
As such, both solid waste collectors met with Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan and officials of the M&CC, and it was promised that payments would be made – putting an end to the long-running saga between collectors and the cash-strapped Council.
Back in January, Central Government had intervened to bail out City Hall by disbursing $100 million to the contractors. At that time, the total owed amount was pegged at over $160 million.
Over the years, Government has bailed out the cash-strapped City Hall on several occasions.