A garbage collection strike looms because of City Hall’s failure to pay its service providers over $250 million in debt to date.
“We were owed $97 million and were paid $1.2 million. We keep asking the bank to bear with us as we have our own debts but there is only so much they can bear,” General Manager of Puran’s Waste Disposal Inc Kaleshwar Puran told Stabroek News yesterday.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Chief Executive Officer of Cevons Waste Management, Morse Archer. “We are owed $168 million. We can’t go on. We have exhausted our monies and are existing at the mercy of people crediting us. If we don’t get substantial payment we will be forced to strike,” he said.
When contacted, Town Clerk Royston King, referring to the $1.2 million said, “Puran’s get paid last week but he ain’t get no big set of money. Cevons get the week before but he ain’t get no big set a money either. We are not paying them how they want to be paid.”
Asked why the payments have not been substantial, King responded, “Because we ain’t gat.” Probed further as to what will happen, King alluded to monies that can possibly be generated via parking meters. “That is why the parking meter is important,” he asserted, referring to the controversial contract entered into by the city.
Yesterday, both contractors said their cost overheads are piling up and their employees and creditors are looking to them for swift payments.
“Some persons have stopped crediting us. We have cleaned the city at our expense and now to be reimbursed seems to be a problem,” Archer said. He informed that about five weeks ago, the city paid his company a paltry $5 million and still owes it $168 million and this figure continues to climb daily.
Puran also lamented the non-payment and said while it affects him personally to see the garbage buildup and uncleanliness of the city, there is only so much he can take as he has a business to run. “We are contemplating striking and looking too at how it affects the city and how dirty it will be but how long can we continue? We keep compounding the problem. The longer we take to strike, the more in debt we will be. We keep digging a hole,” he asserted.
King blamed a series of factors for the city’s poor fiscal state and argued that the parking meter project was urgently needed.
“The fact that our revenue base is so shallow and we have not had valuation of properties for more than 20 years and the fact that we are providing vital services, all of that is why we need new revenue schemes of which the parking meter is one,” the Town Clerk declared.
“A review was done. We have taken careful note of that, but I am saying to you we need new revenue schemes,” he reiterated. “We are fully aware of all the steps we have taken. This is a municipality and this is the national capital of Guyana… you hear what I saying to you right?”
Following widespread public concern at the manner in which National Parking Systems/Smart City Solutions (NPS/SCS) was given the go-ahead to install parking meters in the city, government ordered that a review be done to ascertain if there were any irregularities.
Two reviews were done on the controversial deal: one by the Ministry of Finance and the other by the Attorney-General’s chambers. The Ministry of Finance’s review scathingly criticised the deal saying that government procurement rules may have been transgressed while the AG’s review said the terms highly favour the contractor.
Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan has said he will not relent in his quest to have the controversial deal rescinded.
King would only say yesterday that the council will be looking at the recommendations in the reports. “The council is in the process of addressing the recommendations made by the intervention of the ministers,” he said.
