The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) will meet next week with the city’s two primary garbage contractors – Puran Brothers Waste Disposal Inc and Cevons Waste Management Inc – to settle its outstanding debts, Solid Waste Management Director Walter Narine says.
“I think we have a meeting with them next Tuesday and we hope to pay some money. We kindly ask them to be understanding,” Narine said at an M&CC press conference yesterday.
Representatives of the two companies said earlier this month that City Hall has racked up another debt totalling nearly $150 million between the two companies. It was stated that Puran was owed approximately $73 million for June up to this month while Cevons is owed $75 million from May.
Yesterday, Narine said the figures that were reported were not entirely correct since they are contractually obligated to pay the company within 90 days, and anything before that is not considered debt.
“You would’ve noticed in the media that our primary contractors would’ve indicated that we owe them $69 million and $70 million and that is to date. That may be true but I just want to let you understand that we have a binding contract with these contractors and the contract clearly specify that 90 days after submission of invoices is what becomes owed. So the figures that was given by the contractor is not in keeping with what the contract specifies. So when you look at this, at October month end, then we would’ve owned Purans and Cevons for June and July,” he said. According to Narine, using that calculation City Hall only owes $30 million to Puran and $36 million to Cevons.
He said at next week’s meeting, they will discuss the way forward. Earlier in the year, payments of $175,820,280 was made to Puran Brothers and $205,596,924 to Cevons by central government to cover outstanding debts. City Hall had also made a commitment to pay the contractors on time in 2018. With the recent situation, the companies’ reps had said that they were not ruling out the possibility of withdrawing their services.
Meanwhile, Narine said he wants the public to understand that the waste disposal services are contracted to dispose of three factions of garbage: household waste, anything found on the parapet, and bulk waste.
With the Christmas season approaching, garbage generated by the city is expected to increase by 25% and Narine revealed that they are putting plans in place to ensure that there is no build-up of waste.
“…The plan for that is that we will have to engage our contractors to see if they can put out receptacles strategically in the communities to have residents dump there,” he said.
For the commercial areas, the authorities will ensure that the solid waste management vehicles cater for the excess garbage. They are also hoping to kick-start a waste separation project in Cummings Lodge and will be providing residents with receptacles as well as provide training on how to do composting. The residents will decide whether they want to sell or use the compost.
