While the city has been unable to reach agreement with major firms Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers Waste Disposal on resumption of garbage collection in the city, they say they have attempted to renegotiate with the city and are once again considering legal action to have their contracts honoured.
“The legal advice we are receiving is to take it to court but we have been hoping for an amicable settlement. The last thing we heard is that we would come to a discussion by the end of this month but every month we have been hopeful and every month we are hearing another month, while the condition of Georgetown is deteriorating… Once this month ends, we will be forced to act but I’m still hoping, there is time left in the month,” Morse Archer, of Cevons, told Sunday Stabroek yesterday.
Kaleshwar Puran added that his company sent the city a lawyer’s letter in January but held off on legal action after it asked for “one more month.” “That one more months keeps being extended and it is not good for business. We are willing to renegotiate if they want to change frequency of clearance to reduce the costs or something like that but we maintain we have a valid contract,” he added, while Archer also stressed that for him, the 2015 contract is alive.
Since the suspension of its contracts with Cevons and Puran Brothers, the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has struggled to manage the city’s waste. At last Tuesday’s statutory council meeting, Solid Waste Director Walter Narine once again informed the councillors that the city’s current management of its solid waste is less than ideal.
The two companies withdrew their services from the municipality on November 26th last year, after it failed to pay a total of $160 million for the work they had done since last June. The two companies subsequently issued a joint statement calling on Central Government to intervene in order for them to be paid.
Responding to their call, the Ministry of Communities intervened and agreed to pay off a substantial amount owed to the two companies, resulting in both companies signaling their readiness to return and provide their services to the city. However, the city has not been responding to their requests, claiming instead that the five year contracts signed in 2015 have been nullified.
For five months, the M&CC has repeatedly extended its use of five minor garbage contractors, in order to await legal advice from the Attorney-General Basil Williams on the status of its contracts with the two major firms. However, Williams says it has already been advised that he cannot get involved.
“The Solicitor General has said we don’t represent corporations,” Williams said when questioned by this newspaper on the issue. He added that he “would see how he can help them.”
Meanwhile, since January the two companies shared the burden of waste collection with the five small contractors but noted that even though they have each been reduced to servicing two groups rather than five, they “are still carrying 50% of the city’s waste.”
“To date we have not returned to work as per contract. They called us to do group seven and nine and even that is not to full capacity. The verbal agreement is just to clear household waste not parapet waste and bulky waste,” Puran noted.
The two companies have also not been paid for the little work they are doing, as they refuse to bill at any price other than the one contained in the contract and the city refuses to pay the contract price.
“They want to give us 50% and 60% of what we charge under the contract but we were advised to continue to bill to the full sum. There is no formal contract about a new price structure and we can’t just change our invoice price…we can’t under invoice our contract,” Puran noted.
Archer, too, explained that if council wants to see different invoices, they have to “put it in writing. “We have no written directives. How did they come up with their prices? Is there a document? Is there a contract you are paying based on? If you want to amend the contract, put it in writing,” he stressed.
