– for restoration work done since 2015

DESPITE receiving $500M from the Ministry of Communities to execute clean-up works around Georgetown, the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) still owes at least one contractor some $141M.

That sum, the Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of City Hall heard on Monday, was for work the company would have done as part of the massive city restoration drive back in 2015, such as the cleaning of the Le Repentir Cemetery.

Finance Manager of XL Engineering, Aysha Harrop, told the Commission that it was around December 2015 that they were first approached by Town Clerk, Royston King to begin carrying out clean-up works around the city.

According to Harrop, the company was never issued with contracts for these initial works, and the Town Clerk would bypass the tender process by saying that they were emergency work.

“No, we did not sign a contract with City Council,” Harrop said. “Mr. King would always take us to the site and stipulate that it was an emergency, so we did not have to go through a tender process.

“We don’t have a contract, but he has given us a letter stipulating the amount of money he owes us.

“We asked on several occasions for a contract document, which was never done. However, we were assured it was in the process of being compiled. We were brought on board at the ending of 2015, and it continued until one week after the 50th anniversary in 2016; that would be about June 2016.

SITE CLEANINGS
“We conducted various site cleanings, and carting away of debris for City Council; we also did a thorough cleaning of the cemetery.”

Though the company did not sign contracts with City Hall for these works, Harrop said that they did sign a $15M contract with the Ministry of Communities, via the M&CC under the Georgetown Restoration Programme, whereby the M&CC was given subventions of $300M in 2015 and a further $200M in 2016 by the Ministry.
From that contract, Harrop says the company was paid $9M before King advised them that there was no more money in the kitty.

“The contract was signed at M&CC, but it was a Ministry of Communities contract,” Harrop said. “The monies were sent over to M&CC for them to do the distribution, however, Mr. King indicated that he no longer had all of the money available, so we were never given the remainder of the contract.

“Personnel within the Ministry of Communities have indicated that they would not settle payment, since this money was already distributed to M&CC.”
It was under the said restoration programme that the Auditor General Office had indicated, in an earlier deposition, that its forensic audit had revealed that some $70M of the money was unaccounted for.

Aside from the $15M job, XL reportedly did some other work for the Council totaling some $150M, Harrop said, of which $135M is still outstanding.
“I think it was around $107M for the cemetery, or somewhere thereabouts,” she said, adding:

“That and some other areas was the $150M. And as the money began to accumulate, we indicated to Mr. King that we would no longer be working for the Council. He then assured us that we would be given some monetary payments, and we were then given some small payments.”

HOLD STRAIN
King also told the company to hold strain as the M&CC was expecting a government subvention, and that once that went through, the company would get its money. The company’s last payment from the M&CC was in 2017.

“We, on several occasions, went in to M&CC, to the Accounts Department. On several occasions, we also tried to see Mr. King,” Harrop said, “and every time we would approach either Mr. King or the accountant, we would be told that there is no money right now to pay.

“Since 2016 we’ve been told that the government was going to give them some money to bail out their expenses, and we should hold.

“We received one payment in 2017. After I sat there for days, he gave us $5M in 2017. This was from the [Ministry of] Communities money; not the money that City Council had for us.”

The revelation comes just days after it was reported that the City owes contracted garbage disposal companies some $148M.