The administration of the capital’s garbage disposal services would appear to be slipping deeper into a dysfunctional state with differences between City Hall and its two biggest garbage disposal service providers seemingly escalating following a meeting between the two sides on Wednesday.
While, for the time being at least, the issue of outstanding payments to the two companies appears to have been placed on the back burner following an intervention by government, the second within a year, to help liquidate a current City Hall debt to the contractors of around $160 million, what now appears to have moved to the top of the agenda is whether or not the Council is prepared to retain their services based on the existing contracts.
Following Wednesday’s meeting at which the two garbage disposal companies were asked to postpone their return to work until January, a report in the Stabroek News of yesterday arising out of a statement from the Council attributed to Finance Committee Chairman Oscar Clarke contained a pronouncement to the effect that the two companies had agreed to resume work in January. The statement also alluded to “a new schedule for the remaining days of 2018” assigning garbage disposal duties to Cevons and Puran Brothers which, sources say, deviate from their substantive contractual arrangements with the Council.