…as City Hall refuses to honour $300M debt

WASTE management company, Cevons will lay off some 45 workers, effective September 1, due to City Hall’s refusal to settle millions of dollars of outstanding debt.
The company, along with Puran Brothers, was also fired by City Hall after they had taken industrial action, protesting the protracted delay in City Hall paying them. “There being no indication up to this time that City Hall is disposed to engaging the waste disposal entities, Cevons Waste Management and Puran Brothers, on the matter of its huge outstanding debt, exceeding $300M to the two companies, a point was bound to be reached where consequences would flow therefrom,” Cevons said in a statement on Thursday evening.

The company added: “For Cevons Waste Management, that time has come. The effective delivery of garbage disposal services is attended by considerable costs. “Where sustained delinquency is the terms of payments for services obtain, the viability of the business is threatened.” According to Cevons, in the face of the amounts owing to it by City Hall, “we have continued to shoulder all of the responsibilities associated with the delivery of the service, including, crucially, the costs associated with workers’ wages and salaries and the maintenance of inventory. This, given the extent of the outstanding City Hall debt, has become unsustainable,” the Waste Management Company said.

It said that its decision to maintain a state of normalcy up to this time was informed by “our loyalty to our employees who, over time, have reciprocated that loyalty.” Equally, the company said it is aware of the particular importance of reliable employment to the working-class urban Guyanese and women and their families.

“That is why, for all of the difficulty under which the company has been placed, we kept faith with our employees. There is, however, a point beyond which we are unable to go. It is, therefore, with considerable regret that we announce that with effect from September 1, Cevons Waste Management must discontinue the employment of 45 employees.”
The company said it deeply regrets the decision, and commits itself to restoring the jobs of the displaced workers as soon as the situation normalises.
Earlier this month, both companies had said that they will not make any rash decisions, even as they called on the government to intervene to bring an end to the impasse between themselves and City Hall.

After failing to pay the companies over $300M for services provided from 2015 -2017, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) abruptly terminated their five-year contracts on August 5, 2017, and hired three smaller contractors to clean the city.
City Hall’s failure to pay the companies has taken a toll on them. After providing services to City Hall for 30 years, the companies had said they were saddened to know that City Hall took a decision to terminate their contracts, not because they’d erred in any particular way, but because they stood up for the millions of dollars owed by the Council for services already provided.

Both companies had written to City Hall on August 2, indicating that all services will be suspended from August 6 until a substantial amount of monies owed was paid, and an agreement reached for future payments. But instead of trying to resolve the issue with the contractors, City Hall wrote the two companies on August 5, indicating that their services were no longer needed.
According to Puran, City Hall’s failure to make early payments have crippled the operations of both companies, and it was on that basis that a decision was made to suspend their services until payments are made.
City Hall reportedly owes Cevons Waste Management approximately $198M, and Puran Brothers $174M.

Puran Brothers’ General Manager, Kaleshwar Puran, had said that as a result of the recent developments, the companies wrote a joint letter to President David Granger on August 7, 2017 requesting the government’s intervention.
“We wrote the President, trying to find a way out… We don’t want to make any rash decision; we have a passion for solid waste management, and we want to continue on that note. But at this point, we need somebody to sit down with us and render some assistance,” he said.