…as gov’t bails out M&CC

THE government, through the Ministry of Communities, has paid over the bulk of the funds owed to the two main garbage contractors of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), following a bailout request from the municipality, recently.  Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan made the disclosure to the Guyana Chronicle during an invited comment on Friday afternoon.  In addition to  granting of the bailout, the government through Bulkan’s ministry and  the Public Infrastructure Ministry is working on an “emergency short-term support” to re-engage the two contractors for services up to December 31.

Bulkan said the government is hoping to engage the contractors so that they can resume their operations as early as Monday or Tuesday. Mr. Kalesh Puran, Manager at Puran Brothers Disposal Services, and Mr. Morse Archer of Cevons Waste Management Inc. on Friday confirmed that they have received most of the money owed to them by the City Council.

Puran’s was paid on Thursday and Cevons’ received payment sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday. The government made direct payments to them as no money was forwarded to the City Council.  Puran said the company is hoping to resume its operations in good faith, especially as it insists on high standards and good quality. Archer commented that while no definite arrangements were made for re-engagement, the government did indicate that it is willing to do so. Town Clerk Royston King had written to Bulkan seeking $475,635,245 for payments to the contractors dating back to 2015. This move followed a motion that Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had moved to seek a bailout from government and which received support from the majority of city councillors.

The contractors had suspended their services since last August because the City Council was not keeping its side of the bargain to keep up with current amounts. The companies had agreed to wait for what was owing to them for 2015 and 2016. Ever since then, the Council hired three small-time contractors to work along with trucks belonging to the M&CC, but Head of Solid Waste Management Walter Narine had reported that a number of setbacks were being encountered with the trucks. At one point, trucks belonging to both M&CC and the private contractors were down at the same time.

Collection days had been reduced and the Council  started working with an irregular schedule. At the moment, there has been no clearance of household garbage for two weeks in some areas. Narine had told the Chronicle that when the two contractors come back on board with the City Council, they would not do so with the same “luxuries” that they previously enjoyed. “Both of them are coming back, but not with the same ‘luxuries’ that they had before. We will take back the markets from them and we are going to do high-producing areas like commercial, Albouystown, Charlestown.” These are the areas that produce the most garbage which results in great costs to the City, he explained.

At a Council meeting last week, Chase-Green declared that the City is in a garbage crisis and lamented that there were heaps everywhere she looked. “The garbage is killing me. I gotta get it under control. Christmas coming. I going to government to beg for this bailout to bring this City back in order,” she said. Her ‘begging’ comment came in response to the town clerk’s statement that depending on a government bailout dilutes the authority and autonomy of the City Council.

Meanwhile, in an effort to garner revenue, a on- amnesty period was granted by the City Council for defaulting ratepayers.  A 100 per cent amnesty on interest was approved for the period November 15 to December 15, 2017.