Local Government Minister, Kellawan Lall yesterday announced that monies owed to the City Council for rates and taxes by the government will be used to pay garbage collectors on a monthly basis.
This is the formula central government has worked out since the collectors agreed to resume work after meeting with the president on Monday. “I put the suggestion that we are going to pay from the rates and taxes that we owe the city council to the contractors on a monthly basis so that their payments are secure,” Lall said in the boardroom of his Ministry located in Kingston, Georgetown.
Present also at the conference were the Town Clerk, the Treasurer and the City Engineer of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council.
This course was decided, the Minister said, because he was not comfortable with the priorities of the City Council. “I am not comfortable with the situation whereby we pay the city council and then they have their own priorities…at the end of the month they don’t have enough money to pay.”
“I am not blaming the managers of the city for having the priorities that they have but we as a state also have priorities. We need to at least use our input to see at least garbage produced by households [picked up]. They expect that much from us,” Lall said.
Lall added that the collectors cannot be suspending services suddenly and so “as a representative of the city I want to make an arrangement to see to it that payment to these contractors are made on a monthly basis”.
“So the monies that we owe to the city now amounts to about $80M. A part of that will be used to pay Puran’s and Cevon’s and the remainder will go to city council,” Lall said. Further, he said that he may consider this method of payment for the remainder of this year.
However it remains to be seen if the M&CC will accept this “suggestion” by the Minister. Town Clerk, Yonette Pluck-Cort after the conference yesterday would only say, “The minister has the right to issue orders to the officers and to the council but what was discussed today will be reported to council.”
Even the minister admitted that there was no signed agreement between him and the City Council on this method of payment. He would only say, “We are gentlemen and I’m sure they will not go back on their word.” Lall pointed out too that this was something that was done before.
“Because this matter is now of a national concern to us…the state is stepping up and saying that what we owe the council we will utilise part of that to pay the contractors,” Lall said. This is being done on a basis of understanding, Lall added. Telling the City Council how to spend its money was the government’s way of having it recorded that it paid its rates and taxes.
When the Treasurer, Andrew Meredith was asked if Council laws provided for such use of tax monies, he said, “The fact that the council has a responsibility to pay the garbage contractors we coincide with the government in our responsibility and our concern and therefore I don’t see any issue of us sharing a common ground. We all have concerns for the citizens and it is our responsibility to ensure it is appeased.”
Meanwhile the Mayor, Hamilton Green says that he will hold any response since he is to meet with the Minister today. City Council was unaware yesterday of the meeting between the President and the garbage collectors on Monday. At that meeting the collectors agreed to resume work immediately after they were offered monies by the government.
Since the suspension of garbage collection a month and a half ago Green had lambasted the government for not paying its taxes. He called the government the most delinquent taxpayer and added that government set a bad example.
Although Green welcomed the resumption of work by the collectors, he called the initiative “a repeat of the hegemony of government”. He is expected to give official comments today on the suggestion put forward by Lall.
