THE contractors have, again, withdrawn, their garbage collection services from the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) of Georgetown, citing outstanding payments.
City Hall Public Relations Officer, Mr. Royston King said the delay in paying them is a direct result of the municipality’s narrow revenue base and the negligence and attitude of property owners who fail to honour their obligations. “This unfortunate situation combines with the lack of a recent valuation of properties in Georgetown puts the Council in an embarrassing financial position where it is unable to pay staff, procure materials and honour its debts to other contractors,” King added.
He said the Council is faced with many financial problems which, generally, affect specific operations including garbage collection, drainage and health services among others.
King said, despite the Council’s pleadings, ratepayers have been ignoring their responsibility to the city and putting an extra strain on the already overstretched resources of the municipality.
He appealled to taxpayers to assist the council in bringing the situation to a state of normalcy.
“So far, for this year, Council has already expended about $130M on garbage collection, of which $93M were paid to the three garbage collectors,” King disclosed.
In early July, an official of Puran Brothers told the Guyana Chronicle that the Council owes the company in excess of $25M and a payment, representing 50 per cent of the sum owed, was made earlier this year, just before the company had decided to withdraw its services.
Efforts to contact the relevant authority at Cevon’s proved futile.
However, Council is doing everything practicable to bring a speedy resolve to the issue, by mobilising its own trucks and equipment to collect the city’s waste.
Meanwhile, the Council is urging citizens to desist from illegal dumping, pointing out that it poses very serious environmental challenges for the council, as well.
Private garbage collectors must take their collection to the landfill site at Eccles, East Bank Demerara and persons found dumping any place other than the designated landfill site will be prosecuted.
Therefore, the Council is seeking the cooperation of all citizens to play a part in re-establishing what was once known as the ‘Garden City’. (Telesha Persaud)