The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has once again found itself unable to honour its financial commitments as regards payments for its workers and garbage contractors, which will result in refuse not being collected in communities in the city over the coming days. According to a release from the M&CC, the department is working towards paying its staff by today, and the City Treasurer is also working towards paying a percentage of the sum owed to garbage contactors by Friday. The M&CC is therefore advising residents in communities in the city not to put out their receptacles until such time that the matter has been resolved. The municipality stated in the release that garbage collectors had given the M&CC 72 hours to pay an outstanding sum of $75M for the period June-August, 2009. This deadline expired yesterday, and according to the council, it did not have the money to pay the garbage contractors within the timeframe.
The M&CC noted in the release that in its budget for this year, some $450M was budgeted to be collected in outstanding rates. However, only $59M has been collected to date by the Council’s Treasury and according to the release, this is also the result of non-payments by defaulting ratepayers.
The Council stated in the release that it took a decision at its last statutory meeting held on Monday to pursue emergency measures to obtain the requisite sums to pay staff. The release stated that a number of suggestions were raised including advancing new revenue earning measures, municipal bonds, making optimum use of council’s assets as well as pursuing outstanding monies owed by defaulters. Councillors also suggested that the administration should pay serious attention to its stewardship in the manner it manages municipal resources. The Council is calling on ratepayers to settle outstanding accounts, since according to the M&CC, the situation has enormous potential to negatively affect the health of the environment and the general populace.
