CITIZENS in Groups 7 and 8 of the Georgetown wards have been without garbage collection services for the past two weeks because the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has decided not to pay Puran Brothers Disposal Inc. some $40M for services rendered since last year August.Group 7 comprises Costello Housing Scheme; West, East and North East La Penitence; Middle Road, La Penitence; Jeeboo Land, and an area known as Extra Nuclear.

Group 8 comprises Queenstown, Alberttown, North and South Cummingsburg, Kingston and Woolford Avenue.

Kalesh Puran, Manager of Puran Brothers Disposal Inc, told the Chronicle yesterday that the company last received payment from the City Council in October 2014, and that was for services performed outside of Groups 7 and 8. He said the company cannot continue doing work without being paid for so many months.

The company has, time and again, checked with the City Treasury’s Department but could not secure a proper answer as regards payment, or at least a proposal that they might be able to work with.

“We are hoping for some payment soon. This is an ongoing issue. It’s a new year (and) we need to move forward. We have been going through this for many years,” Mr Puran said.

Currently, four trucks remain parked, and workers have had to be sent on annual leave. The company values its employees because it often finds difficulty recruiting people for the job. Puran pointed out also that the trucks were designed for garbage collection, and hence cannot be used in the meantime for other purposes.

Contacted for a comment on the issue, Acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba would only say that the city councillors have refused to sign the payment vouchers for Puran’s to be paid. To her knowledge, the councillors have no reason for so doing.

Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green told this newspaper that Sooba is “totally dishonest”, and that the municipality is not aware of any signed contract given to Puran Brothers.

“She (Sooba) of her own decided to give Puran’s the go-ahead. She didn’t bring written contracts because she knew the council would oppose (them). She must come clean on the way they were contracted. Puran’s will get paid because he works in good faith, but they are now at a standstill,” Chase-Green said.

(By Telesha Ramnarine)