City Hall has found itself again at an impasse with contracted garbage collection companies, which have pulled their services following a dispute over payments.
Cevons Waste Management Inc. and Puran Brothers Disposal Service have not been paid for their services between the latter half of December last year and April 30, this year.
According to Debra Lewis, City Hall’s acting public relations officer, the municipality has engaged the two contractors over the issue but they have not reached a compromise. She said that the two companies are owed approximately $70M for garbage collection services undertaken within the aforementioned period. They received their last payment during the first half of December last year.
Lewis said that City Hall has offered to pay the two companies for services up to February, which is equivalent to $30M, but the proposal was not accepted by the contracted companies.
When contacted yesterday, officials at both companies offered not to comment on the issue.
In the interim, Lewis said City Hall has mobilised its resources in an effort to cushion the impact of the situation on the city.
She added that the municipality is looking towards cleaning and collecting garbage in and around the main business community in Georgetown.
She said that City Hall is urging residents not to place their garbage receptacles on the roadside as City Hall is working towards finding a solution to the issue.
In recent times, the Georgetown City Council has found itself against the wall as regards payments to the private contracted companies, and the situation has resulted in residents having to develop their own means to disposing of their garbage.
At the same time the Council has charged that its financial situation had been the result of huge sums owed to the unit in rates and taxes.
