— as City Hall hires several small contractors

WITH the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) now having to cope with a pull-out from their two main garbage contractors, Head of City Solid Waste Department, Walter Narine, is confident that with the help of three smaller contractors, there will be no piling-up of garbage in the nation’s capital.

Speaking with the Chronicle on Sunday afternoon, Narine said he believes that the latest action by Puran Brothers Disposal Services and Cevons Waste Management to pull their services, opens up the opportunity for the M&CC to get the work done on its own.

The money that M&CC will save as a result of not having to pay these contractors will go towards paying off the debt to them, he posited. M&CC owes in excess of $300M to the two waste-management companies.

The two contactors indicated last Wednesday via letters that they will withdraw their services on Sunday.

“Well, let’s put it this way: we made an offer and they did not see favour with it,” Narine told the Guyana Chronicle.

The companies in a release Saturday said their return to work was contingent on an understanding reached with the municipality that a meeting would be held to discuss the execution of plans to make a payment to the service providers.
Up to this time (Saturday), the companies said, notwithstanding assurances given by Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan that the way had been cleared for such a meeting, the municipality has not shown any inclination to meet them.
On July 7, the two companies had suspended their services, but resumed work on July 12.
Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers Disposal Inc said their attempts to engage the Council during their strike on July 7 was met by a rude demand that they restore services before talks can take place.
Unlike last month, when they continued collecting commercial waste after withdrawing their residential services, this time around, the contractors have ceased all of their operations.

‘WILL BE FINE’

Narine was less bothered. “It will be fine,” he said.

According to him, the Solid Waste Department will now be covering Groups Seven (East/West Ruimveldt; East/North-East La Penitence; Middle Road, etc.), Eight (Queenstown, Alberttown, North/South Cummingsburg and Kingston), Nine (Albouystown, Charlestown, Wortmanville, Stabroek and Werk-en-Rust) and 10 (commercial areas including Regent, Robb, and Water streets).

The other six groups in Georgetown will be covered by three smaller garbage contractors the municipality plans to work with.

“I would like to thank both Cevons and Puran’s for the job done for the citizenry of Georgetown. They both worked very hard for us and I am thankful. The money saved by us doing the work ourselves will be paid to these guys; we never intended not to pay them,” Narine said.

Just recently, Town Clerk Royston King told City Councillors that the M&CC was finding it increasingly difficult to honour its financial obligations to the contractors.

He said Council had been trying to keep up with current bills, although it has outstanding amounts for the years 2015 and 2016.

King said it was “extremely difficult” for the Council to sustain payments to these contractors, because the municipality is being asked to do more with less resources.

He pointed out that the Council is now doing more drainage works than it has done before.
Although help has been forthcoming from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, it is often inadequate, King noted, and called for the commercial fee to be implemented as soon as possible, and for the container-fee issue to be sorted out.

Meanwhile, M&CC has said that the monthly payments to both contractors is $45M.

“Council needs every cent of its money owed by defaulters to continue to provide essential city services,” M&CC said. A new schedule for garbage collection is expected to be released shortly.
The most recent action by Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers Disposal Inc appears to have ended in bad faith.
On Saturday, the municipal authorities viewed their action as a termination of service.