City Council pledges more efficient garbage disposal
THE Mayor & City Council (M&CC) has pledged to implement a more efficient, effective, enforcement system to deal with the continued accumulation of garbage in and around the capital. Deputy Mayor Robert Williams made the pledge on Tuesday, during a media briefing at City Hall.
According to him, the assurance was given to Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Mr. Norman Whittaker after the latter expressed concern over the build-up of waste in a meeting convened on Tuesday at the Local Government Ministry in Kingston.
Williams said: “The minister met with me, the Town Clerk, Engineer and the Treasurer, to discuss a series of activities affecting the City Council and its operations. He expressed concern about the heaps of garbage around the city.”
The Deputy Mayor said it was agreed that the idea of merging the Solid Waste Department with the Engineer’s Department will be put before the Council for approval.
The move would allow  more effective monitoring, coordination and control for enhancement of the city, including garbage disposal, Williams explained, noting that no jobs will be lost as a result of the merging of the two departments.
He reported that there were also discussions about the submission of estimates for the programme of work relating to the subvention received for the repairs to City Hall, as well as access to  the outstanding $15M for the same purpose.
Williams disclosed that the other matters addressed with the Local Government Minister were pertinent to the City Council‘s operations.
The Tuesday discourse was in keeping with the undertaking given by Minister Whittaker last month, that his ministry will work closely with the City Council to ensure that all funds received by the municipality, whether from taxpayers or through subventions, are spent to deliver service to  citizens.

Additional subvention
Whittaker recalled this was during a multi-stakeholder meeting in August, to facilitate arrangements for the spending of the additional subvention of $135M that government had made available to City Council.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, on August 10, approved a financial bailout to relieve the Council of its ongoing financial woes and to enable it to meet outstanding liabilities, including payment to staff and garbage collectors, owed for several months.
In addition, the Head of State announced that the Government will be paying immediately $80M in rates and taxes due to the Council  bringing Government’s rate payments up to date, to the end of the 2011 third quarter.
Government injected a further $120M, as well, to help meet the municipality pay its outstanding liabilities and accelerate efforts to keep the city clean.
A further $15M will be provided by central government for the purpose of cleaning up Le Repentir Cemetery, making a total government assistance of $215M to the city.
President Jagdeo had indicated, then, that central government is currently spending in excess of $450M to rehabilitate various roads and streets within the city, to enhance the physical environment.
He said by virtue of the fact that those works are being financed by central government the Council’s financial collections would be available to undertake other works.