Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan has managed to secure funding from the Ministry of Communities specifically to pay garbage collectors contracted by the Mayor and City Council monies.
Duncan along with the City’s Solid Waste Director Walter Narine over the weekend met Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan and discussed the city’s financial crisis, which has been preventing the city from making payments to the contractors. “I had to take the initiative and meet with the minister because the collectors had threatened to go on strike last Sunday…,” Duncan said.
Duncan revealed during yesterday’s statutory meeting that after discussions, it was agreed that the sum of $176 million would be given to the council to pay Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers Disposal Inc. The money is being granted with the understanding that it would only be used to pay the contractors a chunk of what is owed to them and not for any other project being undertaken by the city.