Cevon’s Waste Management is set to resume garbage collection today as negotiations for a new agreement between the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) and its two main waste disposal service providers are set for this afternoon.
This decision follows that of Town Clerk Royston King to withdraw the letter of termination that was issued to Cevon’s and Puran Brothers’ Waste Disposal Inc. on August 4 after the companies threatened to suspend their services over non-payment by the council.
Speaking with Stabroek News last evening, King stated that the letter was rescinded yesterday after “certain events have unfolded and with consideration to the environment.”
Additionally, the town clerk wished to note that the city is working to secure its integrity and honouring its obligations and wishes citizens can honour theirs by ensuring their taxes are paid.
Meanwhile, receipt of the letter was confirmed by the Managing Director of Cevon’s, Morse Archer who stated that they will resume garbage collection this morning.
However, when contacted Kaleshwar Puran of Puran Brothers’ Waste Disposal noted that they had not yet received their letter, something he said may have been as a result of their location on the West Bank of Demerara. Nevertheless, he believes that it is only fair that they too receive the letter and that they look forward to meeting the council today for negotiations.
As reported by this newspaper, the issue of garbage collection by the two companies came into dispute in August of last year when Town Clerk Royston King informed the companies by way of letter, of the termination of their contract at the time due to their decision to suspend their garbage collection services as a result of non-payment by the council.
This resulted in many residents and businesses having to endure several weeks or “unreliable” services by small contractors who subsequently undertook the task of garbage collection.
However, Central Government through the Ministry of Communities intervened in November at which time the two companies agreed to resume their work for the period November 27 to December 31, 2017, after which time efforts would be made to review the council’s agreement with the companies early in the new year.
Despite this, both companies have argued that the M&CC had failed to engage them during the five-week period and that it was not until December 31st when their contract with Central Government was up that they received a letter from the council requesting them to continue their services.
However, it was the position of both companies that the continuation of work would only be done once the letter issued to them terminating their contract is withdrawn since they wanted to be cognizant of the conditions under which they will be rendering their services.
Cevon’s waste management in a press statement yesterday issued prior to them receiving their letter had accused the City Council of having “squandered the window of opportunity created by central government’s intervention,” to seek re-engagement of their agreement.
“It has not been our company’s impression that City Hall had made any serious effort to use the November 27 – December 31 period to seek re-engagement with its long-term garbage collection contractors, namely Cevon’s Waste Management and Puran Brothers. Indeed, and up until Sunday December 31, City Hall found reason to set aside such opportunities as arose out of inquiries by our company to meet in an effort to arrive at a workable arrangement that would put behind us the unacceptable status quo that had attended the previous arrangement,” the statement read.
