Dear Editor,
A casual drive by the Solid Waste Department and Mechanical Workshop of the Mayor & City Council located on Princes Street would leave any citizen confounded as to the reasons why the citizens (rates and taxes are being spent to staff a mechanical workshop when every conceivable space has been taken up by vehicles in various stages of disrepair and all of which have been cannibalized.
l would like to ask the Minister of Local Government to pay a visit there where he will find from a fleet of eight garbage trucks, five of them including those donated recently by the Government of Guyana and Government of Japan laid up and not seeming to be going anywhere soon.
A point to note is that lying in this vehicular graveyard is the low bed trailer and hauler that were recently purchased and which created quite a stir when allegations of bribery and corruption surfaced. The trailer was found to have a severely damaged chassis almost immediately after its purchase and the hauler was found to be an outmoded piece of junk, merely camouflaged with a coat of paint.
Also in the graveyard are three vehicles donated by Central Garage but never used. One should ask why the city council sought to acquire these vehicles using precious duty free concessions, when a simple inspection would have revealed they were getting lemons.
Perched in the yard also are two Hymac excavators acquired at considerable cost whilst the council is paying millions of dollars per month to private contractors to rent these same type of excavators. Placed at the front of all of the rubble next to ‘Old Smokey’ is also the (Madvac) vacuum cleaner which has hardly ever been utilized for the purpose intended and that is picking up litter on the streets, but which has also joined the derelicts.
Why don’t they just close down the workshop, and have these pieces of equipment repaired by a competent private firm. I am sure it would save the city a significant amount of money in salaries and wages, while at the same time getting these vital pieces of equipment to undertake the job of urgently cleaning our once Garden City which is now in a complete mess.
Yours faithfully,
Elaine Dunbar
Editor’s note
We sent a copy of this letter to City Engineer Gregory Erskine for any comment he might have wished to make but received no response.
