ACTING Town Clerk, Sharon Harry-Munroe, yesterday reported that the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) of Georgetown cannot at present disclose a definite date by which it will pay its outstanding amounts to garbage contractors.
She was responding to questions from the media at a press briefing that Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green called in the Council’s chamber, City Hall, Georgetown.
According to Harry-Munroe, the Council has handed over payments for two weeks to some of the contractors, but still has over $60M owing to them.
Responding to a question from a media operative on whether the Council does not fear that one day the contractors will withdraw their services permanently, Harry-Munroe responded that the officers would have to review the Municipality’s operations and see what can be done to prevent the current situation from recurring.
Officials from Puran Brothers Disposal Services and Cevons Waste Management Inc. voiced their dissatisfaction with a request by the M&CC of Georgetown last Monday that they accept payment for two weeks only.
The Puran Brothers representative told the Chronicle last Tuesday that officials at the Municipality offered to pay the meagre amount for a part of March, but that they had not even made that sum available as yet.
The official said this request is “ridiculous”, as the Council owes money for the months of March, April, May, and a part of June.
This amount, the official explained, cannot even run the company’s operations for two weeks, and it is for this reason that Puran Brothers requested that the Municipality make payments for at least two months.
The official again lamented that this is not the first time that the company has been dealt with in this fashion by City Council, but noted that this is an ongoing problem. “We don’t have funds to continue at present. How much can we do? All our resources are exhausted,” the official said, adding that the company will not return its services unless more than the amount owing for two weeks is paid.
Office Manager at Cevons, Alicia Edghill, told this newspaper on the telephone that the company also suspended its services last Monday because the Council now owes $29M since March.
Edghill said the Municipality also offered to pay for two weeks, but noted that this request could not be granted as Cevons currently owes Guyoil and other creditors. She said money for two weeks cannot cover these costs.
According to her, Cevons will not be returning services until a substantial amount is paid by the Council.
An official from Crawlers and Wheelers, who prefers anonymity like the official from Puran Brothers, said yesterday that the company has not ceased its operations because M&CC has paid its outstanding amount for March.
The official however said the company hopes that the Council will soon make more payments as it is still two months behind.
M&CC has failed to meet its deadline for paying up its outstanding amounts to garbage contractors, resulting in the latter suspending their services across the city last Monday.
Mayor Green yesterday said at the conference that the Council is cash-strapped because the legal system is slow for various reasons, noting that the Council pleaded with the authorities to establish a municipal court. A special magistrate was then put in place to deal with the issues of the Municipality, but once someone pleads not guilty, the entire system is clogged, he lamented.
This arrangement also contributes to a shortage of staff at the Municipality, as officers would have to spend hours in court instead of taking care of their regular duties.
Another reason the Council is in this financial situation is that there are hundreds of millions of dollars outstanding to the Municipality.
Pointing to an example of this, he referred to the Doctors’ flats in East Street, Georgetown, which owes the council somewhere in the vicinity of $7M. These, he contended, are not on the list of buildings for which the Ministry of Finance pays an annual amount.
He said other buildings in question are the Amerindian hostel, Duke Lodge, and Government Technical Institute (GTI). Only recently, he said, advisors to the Council discovered that Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) on Vlissengen Road was never transferred from M&CC.
Green again lamented that the Council relies almost entirely on taxes and that once that base is compromised, the Municipality would be unaware of its next actions.
Public Relations Officer at M&CC, Mr. Royston King, said in a press statement recently that the Council is in the process of distributing over 28,000 demand notices to property owners so that they can settle their accounts.
He said the Municipality has also initiated legal proceedings against defaulters and currently has a number of them, including businessmen, in court.