Owed garbage collectors commence limited service – Solid Waste Director

Solid Waste Management Director of the Mayor and City Council, Walter Narine on Saturday announced that owed garbage collectors – Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers Disposal – have commenced working on some locations across the city while awaiting full payment from Central Government.
Speaking with Guyana Times, Narine said that City Hall would have convened meetings with the contractors as it relates to the way forward in 2019. Apart from this, there were no discussions on the outstanding $160 million payments.
“In terms of payments for last year, there has been no discussion. In terms of moving forward and coming back on service, we would have met with them and they would have agreed to come back and work on some areas that we identified for them. They have since commenced working on those areas,” he claimed.
The Solid Waste Director noted that he is oblivious of any payment dates since the collectors would have directly spoken to Communities Minister, Ronald Bulkan back in December.
“The Government of Guyana would have engaged them directly. Government would have indicated as of recent that they will pay off the entire hundred percent of the bill that was owed by Council. In terms of payment dates, I don’t know.”
It has been six weeks since the collectors officially pulled their services from the Council. Narine signaled that while they have resumed operations to some extent, the smaller five contractors continue to work at their respective locations.
Bulkan would have met with the collectors and officials of City Hall, where it was declared that Central Government would stand the outstanding $160M by the end of 2018. This is not the first occasion to which the Government rescued the Council from drowning in debts.
In November of 2017, $475M was owed to contractors and Minister of State, Joseph Harmon announced that Government would assist the Council by offering some $300M.
Meanwhile, in 2016, the Georgetown Council found themselves in that same position and subsequently voted to ask the Central Government for a $600 million “bailout” to pay creditors and meet expenses.
Two of City Hall’s creditors, Puran Brothers Disposal Inc and Cevons Waste Management, had threatened to suspend their services over millions owed to them by the municipality.
The decision was made in the wake of uncertainty regarding the success of the “amnesty on interest owed on property rates programme”.
At that time, the Auditor General, in his audit of City Hall’s operations, found no basis in the award of several contracts for the weeding of parapets, desilting of drains and cutting down trees in various areas around Georgetown since supporting documents were unavailable.
At present, there has been a struggle to control the large generation of waste at markets and business hotspots with many resorting to empty land spaces to dump their waste. At the Stabroek Square, it continues to linger on parapets and bus zones.
Statements provided by contractors a few weeks ago contradict the actual outcome of events. What was dubbed as credible assurances is now reduced to uncertainty in the payment arrangement.
“It yielded what we believe to be credible assurances that settlement of the outstanding debt will commence very shortly. Our understanding is that the first payment will be made before the end of 2018. We have, without prejudice, accepted those assurances,” the service providers jointly announced.