Linden Town Council to seek $200M debt bailout

With a debt of approximately 0 million which it inherited from the previous town administration, the cash-strapped Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC) is now seeking the assistance of Government in the form of a bailout in an effort to assist with its present financial woes.
Linden Mayor Carwyn Holland said the municipality was greatly in need of assistance in moving forward. Holland confirmed that he has had an initial discussion about the situation with Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, and he would follow up by officially writing the Minister on behalf of the Council.
“We’re calling on Government for a bailout because we’ve realised several months ago, since we’ve came in to office, that we have this massive debt facing us and with this debt it remains like a monkey on our backs… that we can’t be able to do certain things still at the Council… We asked before, but we intend to formally write the Office of the President and the respective Ministries asking them to bail us out,” the Mayor said.
Holland further explained that the Council was currently not in a position to pay its employees’ gratuity, which they were in need of. The Mayor added that Council workers also needed salary increases since many were still being paid below the minimum wage, which was unacceptable.
Apart from that, the Mayor said the Council could not afford expenses such as electricity, and also needed assistance on other issues, such as erosion and garbage collection.

“We need a bailout at the moment. Linden needs a fresh start. We shouldn’t be carrying the baggage left by previous administration and persons will look at and will think that was our making, but it was never our making… We need help and we’re looking for Government to inject some funds,” he noted.
In April of this year, it was reported that newly-sworn in Council of the Linden Municipality (M&TC) had inherited close to $200 million in debt to several organisations, and was seeking various solutions to clear these debts at the earliest opportunity. Millions were reportedly owed to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the Council was also allegedly indebted to Linden Electricity Company Incorporated (LUSCSI) for street light payments, besides being in debt to other organisations.
In an effort to generate much-needed revenue, the town recently reintroduced the toll system. Holland reaffirmed that projects such as the return of the Kara Kara toll booth at Mackenzie were sought after in an effort to offset expenses incurred by the cash-strapped municipality over the years.