Smaller contractors accepting portioned payments – Mayor

City Hall’s garbage woes

…Cevon’s, Puran contractors not terminated

Georgetown Mayor, Patricia Chase Green, said the municipality has not terminated its contractual obligations with Cevons Waste Management and Puran Bros Disposal since they pulled their service. She added that the three small contractors they hired are open to accepting portioned payments for their services.
Over the weekend, garbage contractors Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers Disposal pulled their services for the second time in less than a month after being owed over $300 million. The companies decided to withdraw their services to City Hall, as the lack of payment to the companies continues despite promises to be paid.

According to the companies, in a joint statement on Saturday, the issue of non-payment for services rendered has been a long-standing one. The companies revealed that City Hall’s debt dates as far back as 2015 and promises proffered by the Council have not been honoured.
Following the companies withdrawal of services, Town Clerk Royston King wrote to both companies on August 4, 2017, instructing them that their services have been terminated.
“I however, write on behalf of the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown to inform you that the recent actions by your company to withdraw garbage collections services (from 7th July to 11th July) and the intended action to do so with effect from the 6th August, 2017 is viewed by the Council as a termination of the current contract, since there is no provision  within the current contract between the Mayor and City Council and your corporation for the suspension of garbage collection services,” King said in his correspondence.
However, Mayor ChaseGreen says otherwise.
“I am not certain the contract with the two others are scrapped, the letter was so kind to say that look you are in breach of your contract with us but we have not scrapped it. We are still in negotiations with them to find a consensus as to how we are going to pay the $300 million. In the interim while they have withdrawn their services, we have got some other small contractors on board to ensure that the city is kept clean at all times,” she said.
“While the small contractors have agreed they will take their money in portions, the larger contractors want all their money at one time and we did have a proposal where we would be paying them a particular amount and the $300 million over a period of time but they were not willing to accept that,” Chase Green added.
She said that the municipality needs over $1 billion to ensure smooth running but notes that they have not seen an increase in their budgetary allocation for a number of years and every possible revenue booster is met with several hurdles.
“In this city alone would take a billion dollars so you talking about a lot of money to maintain this city if you want a modern city,” she said.
Sometime in December 2016, the M&CC would have appealed to the Government for a $600 million bailout and they did not accept the appeal. Out of that $600 million, $300 million was for the contractors.
For quite some time, the M&CC has been accused of being cash strapped, and on multiple occasions, work around the city has had to be halted, since the municipality was unable to pay workers.
Earlier this year, it was reported that the Council and its partners (the contractors) reached an agreement, which in substance said that the City Treasurer would focus on payment of the current accounts while working to find an arrangement to settle the outstanding debts for 2016 while avoiding service disruption.
The Council has said that it would be putting alternative measures in place for garbage collection, and urged residents to ensure they properly dispose of their waste and await the arrival of the garbage collectors. They also say that the Treasurer’s Department would be intensifying its revenue collection drive to recover money owed to the city.
At a meeting with stakeholders in April 2017, the Mayor had informed that the Council is cash strapped and requested businesses pay more for commercial waste disposal. Mayor Chase Green had told business folks that City Hall cannot afford to keep up with the weekly amount of $1.8 million to clear commercial waste.
Though there have been talks of the implementation of a new fee for commercial waste, City Hall officials have remained mum on just how much they are proposing to charge. Notwithstanding, the Mayor threatened that should businesses refuse to pay the new fee, City Hall will have to resort to using the law to discipline them.
Town Clerk Royston King noted that even if citizens pay all of their outstanding taxes, the Council would still fall short of enough money to cover everything it has to do. King said the implementation of a new fee is in order because the service of waste disposal is a very expensive one that the Council cannot afford at the moment.