Govt steps in to settle debt with garbage collectors

The Communities Ministry is currently reviewing proposals submitted by Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers Disposal for the payment of outstanding monies owed to them for garbage collection services across the city.
This was revealed by Minister of State Joseph Harmon at the post-Cabinet press briefing on Friday.
“They have actually made proposals for these outstanding sums and I can say to

you that it is engaging the attention of the Ministry of the Communities right now and after that, it will come to Cabinet for Cabinet to deliberate on it,” Harmon said.
He went on to outline that it is Government’s position that those who have done work and provided services to the State should be paid.
“So I want to give that assurance to the service providers that Government is not unmindful of the fact that they have provided a service and that they have not been paid.”
According to the Minister Harmon, the matter was initially to be settled between the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) and the two companies but central government saw the need to step in, and did so.
“We recongise, now, that there is a problem and it makes no sense for us to just operate as if there is no problem… So we are looking at it, and see how we can

bring relief.”
Harmon further noted that this situation has also impacted workers employed by the two garbage collectors.
“There are a lot of employees who would have been laid off and so on as a result of (the companies) not being paid, and so we are looking at that very carefully to bring relief to the two companies,” the Minister of State assured.
The garbage collectors on June 7, 2017, had pulled their services from Georgetown over the M&CC’s failure to pay them more than $300 million owed since 2015. However following talks with City Mayor Patricia Chase Green, they resumed garbage collection services over a month later.
At a press briefing back in July, Mayor Chase Green had stated that the M&CC was still in negotiations with both Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers Disposal towards working out a strategy for settling that outstanding debts.
She also said that the Council was taking steps to avoid having a similar disruption of garbage service in the future.
The Council will be seeking to boost its capacity to better deliver the service itself, the Mayor said. “A team has been set up to look at all the details of our new plan into having our own garbage trucks, even if we start with one or two come 2018, so we can move forward in that direction,” she had explained.
However, the Mayor noted that several things would have to be in place before this could happen. Some of those things include the M&CC having their own workshop and employees to maintain their vehicles.